Drugs, Electroshock to 0-17 Year-Olds and Pregnant Women Needs Urgent Change

CCHR, concerned that children face motor skill failure, psychosis, suicide, memory loss and brain damage side effects from mental health therapies, refutes $82.5m of taxpayer dollars being invested in early-intervention research that may add harm. The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has granted $33 million to an Australian youth mental health research program that … Read more

Tribute to Whistleblower Nurse Who Exposed Deadly Drug and Shock Practice: Deep Sleep Therapy

(Updated November 27, 2020) “The horrors of Chelmsford would never have been exposed had it not been for the courage of one person, nurse Rosa Nicholson.”[1] After a friend died following deep sleep treatment (DST)—a psychotropic drug-cocktail-induced coma combined with electroshock treatment—Australian nurse Rosa Nicholson spent 18 months trying to get a job at Chelmsford … Read more

Deadly Deep Sleep Treatment

Electroshock treatment featured prominently as part of a damaging and deadly psychiatric practice called “Deep Sleep Treatment” (DST). Used in Australia in the 1960s up to 1979, it was banned under the 1983 New South Wales Mental Health Act. So potentially harmful, criminal penalties, including jail, were implemented should DST be practiced. Other Australian states … Read more

Deep Sleep Treatment Death Nightmare Awakes 30 Years Later to Condemn Current Psychiatric Practices

(Updated November 27, 2020) A lethal psychiatric drug and shock practice CCHR fought to get banned decades ago should spur accountability and patient protections today.  Jan Eastgate, a patients’ rights advocate, spent 14 years investigating and exposing deep sleep treatment in Australia, working with a heroic whistleblowing nurse, patients, legislators and the media to get … Read more

New Research Supports Electroshock Causes Brain Damage: Ban Re-urged

CCHR says new UK research on electroshock “therapy” damage—given each year to 100,000 Americans, including children as young as five—should prompt review of U.S. studies and a ban on the practice. Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, a mental health industry watchdog, praised new UK peer-reviewed research published in the journal Ethical Human Psychology and … Read more

Patient Activist Puts NY State Mental Health Agency on Notice About Misconduct Over Electroshock Risks

A 43-year patient advocate and shock survivor applauds mental health activist on her complaint filed with FDA to enforce patients being told the truth about ECT Lauren Tenney, Ph.D., a psychiatric survivor and activist who has long-exposed the dangers of electroshock treatment, wrote a compelling article recently about her filing a regulatory misconduct complaint with … Read more

NZ Police Renew Criminal Investigation of “Shock-Torture Doc” Despite 40 Years Lapse in His Use of ECT Device to Shock Children’s Genitals as “Therapy”

New Zealand police announced that a fresh inquiry into child torture using electroshock at Lake Alice psychiatric hospital in the 1970s could lead to criminal charges and extradition of psychiatrist responsible, Selwyn Leeks.[1] Despite 40 years since the abuses occurred, a December 2019 damning report from the United Nations Committee on Torture promoted police to … Read more

Electroshock Death Prompts Watchdog to Call for Increased Mental Health Oversight

Oversight of psychiatric facilities during COVID-19 is being reduced, putting patients at risk of treatment death, watchdog warns. CCHR says electroshock and other psychiatric treatments cause damage and tighter but safer controls need to be restored. A patient of Stepping Stones for Living, a for-profit group home in Hermantown, Minnesota died earlier this year after … Read more

Heartbroken: Electroshock Destroyed the Love of My Life

I am writing this to let it be known, electroshock is a direct attack against life. I was born in 1930, into a musical family and I continued the tradition. I have played trumpet and other instruments with several jazz bands, have composed music and in short, have enjoyed a successful career as a musician. … Read more

A Mother’s Story: “I was lied to and told electroshock was ‘safe’”

I am writing this article to protect children and the elderly. I am the mother of five and after learning of the promotion of electroshock therapy (ECT) being used on children and the elderly, I want to sound an alarm by sharing my first-hand knowledge. I want to let others know what I went through … Read more