Dr Cunliffe was a pediatrician until she left her job after undergoing ECT. She has become an advocate for other patients who have received ECT.

Sue Cunliffe, MBchB, RCPCH

included a Point/Counterpoint feature on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). You can read the introductory essay, “Electroconvulsive Therapy: Obsolete and Dangerous or Still Just Misunderstood?” by Horacio A. Capote, MD, 

 have agreed to continue their debate online. Below, Ms. Hancock, Ms. Cunliffe, and Dr Read argue that ECT is ineffective and unsafe. Representing the pro-ECT position, Dr Henry has responded to their article 

We thank Michael E. Henry, MD, for responding to our article electroconvulsive therapy (ECT): “

,” Henry challenges the conclusion of a recent review

 that there is no robust evidence to determine whether ECT is better than placebo: “The selection criteria used by Read and colleagues were limited to older studies (1956 to 1985).”

 The selection criteria were not time-limited. There simply have not been any placebo-controlled ECT studies since 1985.

 Furthermore the 11 pre-1986 studies were grossly flawed.

We agree with Henry that modern treatment approval requires rigorous, randomized, placebo-controlled methodology using the universally accepted standards of evidence-based medicine. ECT clearly lacks this sort of evidence-base.

Henry produces 3 traditional defences for this empirical data vacuum. First, he argues that studies without placebo control groups, such as comparing different electrode placements, are sufficient. A review of these non-placebo studies, however, revealed that none “produced robust evidence that ECT is effective for depression, primarily because at least 60% maintained ECT participants on medication, 89% produced no meaningful follow-up data beyond the end of treatment, and none investigated whether ECT prevents suicide.”

Second, Henry refers to “more than 75 years of clinical experience”

 as evidence of efficacy. Unfortunately, history is littered with treatments used for decades until deemed ineffective, harmful, or both.

Third, Henry brings up the “ethical dilemma of treating very ill patients with a placebo treatment.”

 But this assumes ECT is safe and more effective than a placebo, and that is precisely what is in question. Assuming its efficacy would position ECT proponents beyond the parameters of evidence-based medicine. Testing treatments in vulnerable populations is essential to establish efficacy, safety limits, and device regulatory protocols.

Henry portrays ECT-induced brain abnormalities, like hippocampal enlargement, as necessarily beneficial. However, a 2013 review of more than 100 imaging studies concluded “the temporarily improved scores on depression instruments following ECT reflect the combination of frontal and temporal lobe functional impairments and activation of the HPA axis and the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system. These effects as well as other detailed changes observed in structures such as the hippocampus appear consistent with those typically seen after severe stress-exposure and/or brain trauma.”

There is no evidence that ECT prevents suicide. A recent study found that 14,810 ECT patients were 1.3 times more likely to die by suicide than 58,369 ECT controls.

1. ECT provides only short-term symptom relief. There are no studies demonstrating ECT outperforms placebo beyond treatment termination, and none that it prevents suicide.

2. Between 12% and 55% of ECT recipients live with persistent memory loss,

 which is suffered disproportionately by women and older individuals, ECT’s target demographic groups.

3. Thymatron ECT device manufacturer lists 7 administration technique variables associated with risks of “

permanent brain damage and permanent memory loss

4. One in 50 ECT recipients suffer “major adverse cardiac events and death after ECT.”

5. Despite repeated requests, the US Food and Drug Administration acknowledges never receiving premarket PMA studies assessing safety or Product Development Protocols to establish 

 ECT research has still not produced any safety testing using modern clinical parameters, dosing limits, or universal administration technique protocols to reduce risks and enable replicable results.

6. Medicare reimburses ECT providers who fail to report quality data, without limits in the number of treatments provided or 

 The 34% increase in US hospitals providing ECT since device reclassification may reflect what happens when hospitals identify an unregulated income source.

7. No one knows how many Americans receive ECT each year, or how many treatments each individual receives, or 

8. ECT recipients are not provided legal informed consent regarding all risks.

9. ECT providers are not routinely assessing each patient for all known risks.

10. Repetitive intracranial mild traumatic brain injury has life-long consequence.

11. ECT recipients injured by treatment are rarely referred for comprehensive rehabilitation to improve quality of life.

12. ECT privileging requirements in the US do not include studying its 

 Without such training, psychiatrists cannot provide appropriate long-term follow-up as recommended by Thymatron device manufacturer.

Failure to acknowledge adverse effects of ECT, with life altering consequences in some patients, creates insurmountable barriers to those injured who need appropriate rehabilitation interventions to improve quality of life after treatment. ECT’s immediate and long-term damage to so many far outweigh its temporary benefits for some individuals.

 is a nationally certified rehabilitation counselor and former Clinical Rehabilitation Counseling and Clinical Mental Health faculty member at San Diego State University. More than a decade ago, Sarah received 116 ECT treatments and now lives with long-term neurological sequalae of repeated exposure to high electrical fields.

is professor of clinical psychology at the University of East London. He is chair of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal and editor of the scientific journal 

. He has authored several books and more than 200 research papers.

was a pediatrician in the UK until she left her job after undergoing ECT. She has become an advocate for other ECT patients. 

1. Henry ME. ECT: an effective and safe treatment. 

. 2021;38(4):4,7. Accessed April 16, 2021.

2. Read J, Hancock S, Cunliffe S, Henry ME. ECT: dangerous on either side of the pond. 

. 2021;38(4):4-6. Accessed April 16, 2021. 

3. Read J, Kirsch I, McGrath L. Electroconvulsive therapy for depression: a review of the quality of ECT versus sham ECT trials and meta-analyses. 

4. Gregory S, Shawcross CR, Gill D. The Nottingham ECT Study. A double-blind comparison of bilateral, unilateral and simulated ECT in depressive illness. 

5. Read J, Arnold C. Is electroconvulsive therapy for depression more effective than placebo? A systematic review of studies since 2009. 

6. Fosse R, Read J. Electroconvulsive treatment: hypotheses about mechanisms of action. 

7. Peltzman T, Gottlieb DJ, Shiner B, et al. Electroconvulsive Therapy in Veterans Health Administration Hospitals: Prevalence, Patterns of Use, and Patient Characteristics. 

Regulatory Update to Thymatron System IV Instruction Manual

. Somatics, LLC; 2018. Accessed May 6, 2021. 

9. Duma A, Maleczek M, Panjikaran B, et al. Major adverse cardiac events and mortality associated with Electroconvulsive Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. 

10. Food and Drug Administration. Reclassification of electroconvulsive therapy devices; effective date of requirement for premarket approval for electroconvulsive therapy devices for certain specified intended uses. Published online December 26, 2018. Accessed May 6, 2021. 

11. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare program: fiscal year 2021 inpatient psychiatric facilities prospective payment system and special requirements for psychiatric hospitals for fiscal year beginning October 1, 2020. 42 CFR Parts 412 and 482. 2020;16990. 

12. Hancock SP. Whose finger is taking the pulse of America’s shock treatment controversy? Mad In America. July 16, 2020. Accessed May 6, 2021. 

13. American Psychiatric Association Committee on Electroconvulsive Therapy. 

The Practice of Electroconvulsive Therapy: Recommendations for Treatment, Training, and Privileging: A Task Force Report of the American Psychiatric Association. 2nd ed.

 American Psychiatric Association; 2001. Accessed May 5, 2021. 

Articles

ECT has been in use for decades, but does that mean it is safe or effective? 

Raising Doubts About ECT

Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is still used on about a million individuals annually, a recent review found “large variation between continents, countries and regions in utilization, rates and clinical practice.”

 in usage between the highest and lowest utilizations regions of England.

In June 2020, this article’s first author published his fifth review of the ECT literature since 2010.

 evaluated the quality of 5 meta-analyses that claimed ECT was effective and safe, as well as the quality of the placebo-controlled studies that had been cited by the meta-analyses. (In these studies, placebo included the general anesthetic without the electric shock.) There have only been 11 placebo-controlled studies of ECT for depression, all of which were conducted before 1986.

Electroconvulsive Therapy: Obsolete and Dangerous or Still Just Misunderstood?

ECT: Dangerous on Either Side of the Pond

John Read, PhD, Sarah Hancock, MS, CRC, Sue Cunliffe, MBchB, RCPCH

The 5 meta-analyses often cited by critics, which included between 1 and 7 of the 11 studies, paid little or no attention to the studies’ multiple limitations (

The quality of most SECT-ECT studies is so poor that the meta-analyses were wrong to conclude anything about efficacy, either during or beyond the treatment period . . . Given the high risk of permanent memory loss and the small mortality risk, this longstanding failure to determine whether or not ECT works means that its use should be immediately suspended until a series of well designed, randomized, placebo controlled studies have investigated whether there really are any significant benefits against which the proven significant risks can be weighed.

Table. Issues With the 11 Placebo-Controlled ECT Studies for Depression

The review’s conclusion that there is no evidence ECT prevents suicide, as often claimed, has been unequivocally confirmed by a study of 14,810 patients who received ECT and 58,369 controls.

 Patients in the ECT group were 16 times more likely to attempt suicide over 12 months than the non-ECT patients. Even after controlling for a range of mediating variables, the ECT patients were still 1.3 times more likely to die by suicide (not a statistically significant difference).

The exact incidence of brain damage remains unknown. If brain damage is defined as memory loss persisting at least 6 months after the last ECT, findings range from 12% to 55%.

 This damage is more common in women and older individuals,

 and these groups receive ECT disproportionately.

 While there are many accounts of devastated lives on social media, examples in the published scientific literature are less common. One example 

With each shock treatment, I felt more and more of myself slipping away. I couldn’t remember things, particularly the immediate past, but eventually even the more distant past had been erased. I was frightened by this. I thought, ‘if I don’t know what I’ve done or where or I’ve been, then who am I? A person’s memories are her identity. Take them away, and you take away her sense of self.’

Advocates of ECT treatment deny it causes brain damage, although a manufacturer of ECT machines includes “permanent brain damage” as a risk.

 Others acknowledge memory loss but blame the depression, not the electricity, even after a review concluded that “There is no evidence of a correlation between impaired memory/cognition after ECT and impaired mood, much less a causal relationship,”

 a conclusion subsequently confirmed in a 

The class action lawsuit currently being prepared in the United Kingdom (UK) is focused not on the memory loss and brain damage per se, but on the failure of psychiatrists to 

The risk of death is greater than 1 per 10,000 patients noted by organizations like the American Psychiatric Association.

 The leading cause of death is cardiovascular failure.

 A review of 82 studies with more than 100,000 patients, found that 1 in 50 patients experienced “major adverse cardiac events.”

 In addition, there are other mortality risks, which are higher for older individuals in the target age group for ECT, and are associated with general anesthetic procedures.

The review of meta-analyses3 received wide media coverage. Although some psychiatrists attacked the review, some patients feel vindicated by the findings.

One of the authors (Hancock) has undergone more than 100 ECT procedures in the United States.

Since the first device classification hearing in 1978, the FDA has requested premarket approval (PMA) electroencephalogram studies (and more recently functional magnetic resonance imaging) to justify device reclassification. Despite never having received PMA data for ECT, the FDA 

 a closed hearing during 2018 and reclassified ECT devices from higher risk to moderate risk.

 This reclassification occurred less than 3 months after ECT machine manufacturer Thymatron published its regulatory update, listing “permanent brain damage and permanent memory loss” as 

 Having never undergone PMA safety testing, ECT is unstandardized. Each ECT experience (positive or negative) is therefore just anecdotal evidence.

Psychiatrists, who are not required to study the neuropathology of repetitive high electric field strength on brain tissue, are naive to the compounding microstructural damages only visible with proper staining techniques and under a microscope. Consequently, many psychiatrists are liable to miss the cellular, microvascular, neuronal, and voltage-gated ion channel damage that is invisible on standard brain scans.

In 82 years of ECT use, the field of psychiatry has not conducted long-term studies of patients to identify ECT’s functional impact on quality of life or aging. Modern research in repetitive brain injury sheds light on the realities faced by millions of ECT recipients. Bennet Omalu, MPH, a neuropathologist who identified chronic traumatic encephalopathy in National Football League players, stated that, where they exist, functional injuries resulting from ECT must be considered as both repetitive brain injury and repetitive electrical trauma.

Unlike standard documentation required to justify insurance reimbursements, Medicare 

 ECT “providers who failed to report quality data.”

 In other fields of medicine, if a procedure is not documented with quality data, it is denied. Yet the reimbursement rate for fiscal year 2021 for “providers who fail to report quality data” is more than the 

 rate for properly documented ECT in FY 2020.

Given ECT’s national reimbursement practices, it is unsurprising that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Directory of Mental Health Treatment Facilities ECT provider list 

 from 335 clinics in 2018 to 449 in 2020.

 since device reclassification may reflect what happens when hospitals identify an unregulated income source.

Regulating ECT is challenging without an accreditation process to monitor providers. No one knows how many Americans receive ECT each year, let alone how many treatments each individual receives or how closely providers space treatments. This is a troubling dilemma considering Thymatron’s regulatory update lists the number of treatments received, and closely spaced treatments as 2 of the 7 independent risks, recognized by the APA, as being related to “permanent memory loss or permanent brain damage.”

The third author of this piece (Cunliffe) has also undergone ECT. She was a doctor until 2005 when she suffered devastating brain damage from ECT. She has improved over the last 15 years, but she reports disabling neuronal fatigue. She can never work again, and she has lost her independence. Nonetheless, Cunliffe feels fortunate, as she is the only ECT patient she knows who received has neurorehabilitation. She has dedicated herself to preventing the distress of others.

After being admitted to the hospital following coercive abuse, Cunliffe was persuaded to undergo 20 sessions of ECT. Her medical notes clearly demonstrate a lack of monitoring. To the contrary, the notes document her complaints about deteriorating memory, speech slowing down, feeling continuously sedated, and having issues with motor and coordination skills. Instead of reviewing the treatment plan, the dose was increased from 90 millicombs (mCs) to 700 mCs.

Cunliffe spent 10 years researching ECT practice and the UK’s ECT Accreditation Service (ECTAS), which is run by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP). She found a 2015 ECTAS patient survey showed that 19% of patients who received ECT treatment were 

 by permanent memory loss; however, this figure is never quoted and ECTAS continues to accredit units that are neither offering informed consent nor monitoring for side effects.

 In the UK, units can continue to operate without accreditation and without meeting the minimum ECTAS standards. Cunliffe has 

 publicly about her story, including at one of the famous Maudley debates at the Institute of Psychiatry, 

 the motion “ECT has No Place in Modern Medicine.”

According to Cunliffe, the RCP’s response to her recent letter outlining the serious flaws in the ECTAS accreditation service shows that they have no intention of improving standards of care or consent. She added that RCP President Adrian James, FRCPsych, MSc, refused to meet with her and other victims.

A UK coalition of 40 ECT survivors and family members, mental health professionals (including psychiatrists), and researchers have 

 the health minister calling for an independent enquiry into the practice of ECT.

 The call has been endorsed by many members of Parliament, the National Counselling Society, the Association of Clinical Psychologists UK, the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry, and, importantly, Headway, the brain injury association. The UK’s largest mental health charity, Mind, 

At Mind, we back calls for a comprehensive review into the use of ECT, a potentially risky physical treatment that is still used to treat mental health problems in rare cases. We know that some people have found it effective for improving symptoms of mental health problems—particularly depression—when nothing else has worked. However, we still don’t know why it works or how effective it is. Some people who have had ECT may have found they experience adverse side effects that are worse than the symptoms of the problem they’re trying to treat, including short term or longer term memory loss.

We recognize that ECT advocates have their patients’ best interest at heart. However, an evidence-based approach to psychiatry dictates that this controversial treatment be suspended pending research that meets 21st century standards to determine whether there are any benefits to offset the proven adverse effects in comparison to placebo. At the very least, to comply with the ethical principle of 

, the minority of psychiatrists who continue to use ECT must tell potential ECT recipients that: there is no evidence that it is better than placebo beyond the end of the treatment period, there is no evidence that it saves lives, and studies have found that it causes persistent or permanent memory loss in 12% to 55% of patients, with particularly high rates among women and older individuals.

1. Leiknes KA, Jarosh-von Schweder L, Høie B. Contemporary use and practice of electroconvulsive therapy worldwide. 

2. Read J, Harrop C, Geekie J, et al. A second independent audit of ECT in England, 2019: Usage, demographics, consent, and adherence to guidelines and legislation. Psychol Psychotherapy:. in press. Accessed March 8, 2021. 

3. Read J, Kirsch I, Mcgrath L. Electroconvulsive therapy for depression: a review of the quality of ECT versus sham ECT trials and meta-analyses. 

The effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy: a literature review

5. Peltzman T, Shiner B, Watts BV. Effects of electroconvulsive therapy on short-term suicide mortality in a risk-matched patient population. 

The cognitive effects of electroconvulsive therapy in community settings

7. Rose D, Fleischmann P, Wykes T, et al. Patients’ perspectives on electroconvulsive therapy: systematic review. 

8. Read J, Bentall R, Johnstone L, et al. Electroconvulsive therapy. In: Read J, Dillon J, eds. 

Models of Madness: Psychological, Social and Biological Approaches to Psychosis, 2nd ed. 

Consumers’ views of electroconvulsive therapy:
A qualitative analysis

10. Somatics. Regulatory Update to Thymatron System IV Instruction Manual. Accessed February 12, 2021. 

http://www.thymatron.com/downloads/System_IV_Regulatory_Update.pdf

11. DK Law Group. ECT shock treatment litigation – case update June 2019. Latest News and Law Blog. Accessed February, 12, 2021. 

1http://www.dk4law.com/blog/dk-law-group-news/ect-shock-treatment-litigation-case-update-june-2019/

12. Robertson H, Pryor R. Memory and cognitive effects of ECT: informing and assessing patients. 

13. Halle M, Adams S. Dozens of patients sue the NHS over claims they suffered brain damage after having depression treatment of electrical currents through the head. The Mail on Sunday. July 19, 2020. Accessed February 12, 2021. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8537431/Dozens-patients-sue-NHS-claims-suffered-brain-damage-having-therapy.html

14. Duma A, Maleczek M, Panjikaran B, et al. Major adverse cardiac events and mortality associated with electroconvulsive therapy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. 

15. United States Food and Drug Administration. Neurological devices; reclassification of electroconvulsive therapy devices; effective date of requirement for premarket approval for electroconvulsive therapy devices for certain specified intended uses. Federal Register: The Daily Journal of the United States Government. December 26, 2018. Accessed February 12, 2021. 

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/12/26/2018-27809/neurological-devices-reclassification-of-electroconvulsive-therapy-devices-effective-date-of

16. Alpers BJ. The brain changes associated with electrical shock treatment; a critical review. 

17. Friedberg J. Neuropathologic effects of ECT. 

18. Chen W, Zhongsheng Z, Lee RC. Supramembrane potential-induced electroconformational changes in sodium channel proteins: a potential mechanism involved in electric injury. 

19. Jafari H, Couratier P, Camu W. Motor neuron disease after electric injury. 

20. Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Board meeting minutes. California Department of Rehabilitation. August 26, 2019. Accessed February 12, 2021. https://www.dor.ca.gov/Content/DorIncludes/documents/TBI/TBI Full Committee Meeting Minutes 8-26-19.docx

21. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare program: fiscal year 2020 inpatient psychiatric facilities prospective payment system and quality reporting updates for fiscal year beginning October 1, 2019. April 23, 2019. Accessed February 12, 2021. 

https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=CMS-2019-0067-0002

22. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare Program: fiscal year 2021 inpatient psychiatric facilities prospective payment system (IPF PPS) and special requirements for psychiatric hospitals for fiscal year beginning October 1, 2020 (FY 2021), 85 § (2020). United States of America. Accessed February 24, 2021. 

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-08-04/pdf/2020-16990.pdf

23. Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Behavioral Health Services Information System Series. 2018 National Directory of Mental Health Treatment Facilities. Accessed February 24, 2021. 

https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/cbhsq-reports/nmhss_directory_2018.pdf

24. Department of Health and Human Services. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Behavioral Health Services Information System Series. 2020 National Directory of Mental Health Treatment Facilities. April 14, 2020. Accessed February 24, 2021. 

https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2020-national-directory-mental-health-treatment-facilities

25. Royal College of Psychiatrists. ECTAS Interim Report – Patient perspectives: March 2013 – April 2014. eds. Haily E, Hodge S, Buley N. August 2015. Accessed February 24, 2021. 

https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/docs/default-source/improving-care/ccqi/quality-networks/electro-convulsive-therapy-clinics-(ectas)/ectas-interim-report.pdf

26. Read J, Cunliffe S, Jauhar S, McLoughlin DM. Should we stop using electroconvulsive therapy? BMJ. 2019;364:k5233.

27. Institute of Psychiatry. 57th Maudsley Debate. “This House Believes ECT Has No Place in Modern Medicine.” September 27, 2018. YouTube page. Accessed February 12, 2021. 

28. Cunliffe S, Johnstone L. Call for a review of the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Letter to Matt Hancock, MP. July 10, 2020. Accessed February 12, 2021. 

https://www.uel.ac.uk/-/media/staff/r/john-read/call-for-independent-review-of-ect-july-10.ashx

29. Buckley, S. Mind is backing a call to review the use of electroconvulsive therapy. Mind. August 12, 2020. Accessed February 12, 2021. 

https://www.mind.org.uk/news-campaigns/news/mind-is-backing-a-call-to-review-the-use-of-electroconvulsive-therapy-ect/

No one has precise data about how many Americans receive ECT each year, let alone how many treatments each patients receives or how closely providers space treatments. This is a troubling dilemma, according to the authors.