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
(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
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
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
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
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
In an additional article to a multi-part series exposing the dangers of electroshock treatment (ECT), Jan Eastgate, President of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) calls for an overhaul of the Food and Drug Administration. In December 2018, the FDA reduced the risk classification of the electroshock device so that it could be … Read more
In January 2011, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a Neurological Devices Review Panel Hearing into electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or electroshock. The FDA and panel couched electroshock in terms of a “standard medical practice.” In a fifth article in a series on ECT, mental health watchdog, Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), discusses … Read more
In the fourth part of a series of public awareness articles about electroshock treatment, Jan Eastgate, the president of Citizens Commission on Human Rights International continues to explore the cover up of the dangers of electroshock (ECT). The American Psychiatric Association (APA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report (without current evidence) that 100,000 Americans … Read more
In the third part of a series of public awareness articles posted on TruthAboutECT.org, Jan Eastgate, the president of mental health industry watchdog, Citizens Commission on Human Rights International continues to explore the cover-up of the dangers of psychiatric electroshock treatment, or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which constitutes consumer fraud. To camouflage the false idea that … Read more