A TOTAL OF 257 people underwent 2,217 sessions of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in 2013, a practice some campaigners want banned outright.
Just last month, the HSE sought and received a High Court order which led to a 16-year-old girl being given the treatment, which the executive argued would save her life.
The girl, the court was told, was severely depressed and had an eating disorder. The court order was sought as she was unwilling to undergo the therapy voluntarily.
Article 59b of the 2001 Mental Health Act allowed ECT for a person “unwilling or unable” to consent. An amendment to that section removed the word “unwilling” but left “unable”.
The 2013 report from the Mental Health Commission, the last year which statistics are available for, shows the ECT was carried out in 17 centres across Ireland, though 65 are approved to carry out the therapy.
Of that number, 56 (17.6%) were listed as involuntary treatments.
The Mental Health Commission’s numbers say that 73.9% of patients
Protest
However this weekend a protest by MindFreedom Ireland, a Cork-based psychiatric survivor group, will demand the end to the treatments.
The group says the use of ECT is “outdated and dehumanising”.
“Critics say it causes trauma, brain damage and enduring memory loss.
“(At the protest) [t]estimonies on how it affected them will be given by survivors of electroshock, some in their 60s, who will speak of the resulting brain dysfunction they experienced including problems with concentration, decision making, creativity, problem solving ability and processing new information.”
However, medical professionals say that while the issue is emotive, ECT represents a last-ditch effort for some patients. Indeed, that argument was presented in last month’s High Court case.
The College of Psychiatry in Ireland‘s position on ECT is that it is rarely used, clinically applied and regulated. Their position accepts that some patients will experience transient amnesia, but that this will generally right itself.
They add that the treatment is necessary.
“It is the considered opinion of the College of Psychiatry or Ireland that ECT is an important and necessary treatment for various serious psychiatric conditions, most commonly severe depression.
There are severely ill patients who will not respond to any other treatment and for whom there is no alternative effective treatment. These patients would be seriously disadvantaged if they were denied access to a treatment which might restore them to health.
“The College recognises that ECT raises anxiety and fear in many people and its use is seen as controversial.”
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