Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xi, 359 p. : ill.; 25 cm.

Summary

1. This superb study documents a development that is an ongoing controversy in the field of psychiatry: electro convulsive therapy (ECT) and the appropriateness of using it to treat a host of conditions such as depression and anxiety. Looking at neurophysiological effects, Andre (director, Committee for Truth in Psychiatry, an organization for ECT survivors) makes a strong case that ECT, like traumatic brain injury, produces significant brain damage resulting in memory loss, cognitive deficits, and difficulties with everyday tasks (e.g., making change, calculation). The author argues that the psychiatric establishment (including makers of devices working hand in hand with regulatory agencies, in defiance of conflict-of-interest statutes) has refused to consider the possibility of any loss accruing from ECT. Indeed, in contradiction to scientific evidence (which has been suppressed), ECT adherents and practitioners claim that it promotes neural development, and they have made efforts to prove that underlying depression, not ECT, causes morphological changes in the brain. Weaving her own, often poignant, experiences with ECT into the narrative, Andre contends that ECT proponents/practitioners undercut informed consent through systemic deceit, including failure to reveal negative consequences. The audience for this excellent resource should include those who make mental health policy. D.J. Winchester Yeshiva University.

Uniform title

1. Project Muse UPCC books.

Subject

1. Outcome Assessment, Health Care
2. Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care
3. Truth Disclosure
4. Electroshock
5. Geschichte 1950-2000
6. Treatment Outcome
7. Mental Disorders > therapy
8. Informed Consent
9. Electroconvulsive Therapy > history
10. Electroconvulsive Therapy > ethics
11. Electroconvulsive Therapy > adverse effects
12. Electroconvulsive therapy
13. Shock therapy

Contents

1. The trouble with time -- Eugenic conceptions I : ticking time bombs -- Eugenic conceptions II : useless eaters -- A little brain pathology -- Informed consent and the dawn of the public relations era -- The American Psychiatric Association Task Force -- The making of an American activist -- The ECT industry cows the media -- Long strange trip : ECT and the food and drug administration -- The Committee for Truth in Psychiatry -- Anecdote or evidence? -- Shaming science -- The lie that won't die -- Erasing history -- The triumph of public relations over science -- Should shock be banned? : the moral context -- Where do we go from here?

Owning institution

1. Harvard Library

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (p. 316-348) and index.

Processing action (note)

1. committed to retain