Word: antishock
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...understands the risk he takes when he undergoes it (his most recent treatment was last summer; he currently takes medications). A tiny number of patients die: the National Institute of Mental Health says the figure is 1 in 10,000, about the same as any procedure involving anesthesia. Antishock activists cite Texas statistics from the mid-'90s, saying about 1 in 320 electroshock patients died in the two weeks after treatment, though the deaths weren't necessarily caused by electroshock. The activists also say electroshock causes brain damage. Dr. Breggin says the damage produces delirium so severe that patients...
...panacea, of course. Electroshock's effects are short term, lasting weeks or months before depression can descend again. At $2,500 a treatment, it's also expensive, though insurance usually covers it. Antishock activists say it's just a cash cow for hospitals and that the response rates cited by the Surgeon General are inflated. In 1996, Lawrence of ect.org surveyed 41 former electroshock patients and found that 70% said the treatment had no effect on their depression. Joseph Rogers, executive director of the National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse, says 3 out of 4 of the electroshock patients...
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