Position on Electroshock (Electronvulsive Therapy or ECT) by PsychOUT Conference

Electroshock: Position of the PsychOut Conference

1. WHEREAS research has established to a level of statistical significance that electroshock causes brain damage by causing seizure and through the electrical current, and indeed, that it does so in all its forms whether it be unilateral or bilateral, traditional pulse width or ultra brief pulse, whether it be called classical electroshock or new modified electroshock;

2. WHEREAS electroshock always causes permanent memory loss;

3. WHEREAS electroshock frequently causes psychological trauma;

4. WHEREAS electroshock frequently causes permanent impairment and loss in creativity;

5. WHEREAS research establishes conclusively that electroshock is no more effective than placebo in alleviating depression or preventing suicide—the one effect which it is said to effectively address—and placebo causes none of the problems listed above;

6. WHEREAS despite decades of government committing themselves to informed consent, informed consent to electroshock remains a fiction;

7. WHEREAS electroshock disproportionately targets and discriminates against women, mothers diagnosed with “post-partum depression”, and elderly people;

8. WHEREAS many people experience electroshock as a serious violation of human rights, specifically as an assault on people’s dignity and as cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment;

We the scholars, psychiatric survivors, students, and activists attending the PsychOut Conference, an international academic conference being held at University of Toronto, May 7 and 8, 2010, some of whom have personally experienced electroshock and have been damaged by it, take the following position:

1. Electroshock is not a treatment which should in any way receive state financing or support

2. We see governments as ethically obliged to stop funding electroshock

3. We support provincial and state legislation everywhere whose purpose is to remove public funding for electroshock

4. We applaud the work of legislators like MPP Cheri DiNovo, who will be introducing legislation to defund electroshock this very week, and as concerned scholars, survivors, students, and activists, we call on the provincial legislature of Ontario to pass this important piece of legislation.=