Electroconvulsive Therapy Causes Permanent Amnesia And
Cognitive Deficits,
Prominent Researcher Admits
Medical News Today December 22, 2006
In a stunning reversal, an article in the journal
Neuropsychopharmacology in
January 2007 by prominent researcher Harold Sackeim of
Columbia University
reveals that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) causes
permanent amnesia and
permanent deficits in cognitive abilities, which affect
individuals' ability
to function.
"This study provides the first evidence in a large,
prospective sample that
adverse cognitive effects can persist for an extended
period, and that they
characterize routine treatment with ECT in community
settings," the study
notes.
For the past 25 years, ECT patients were told by Sackeim,
the nation's top
ECT researcher, that the controversial treatment doesn't
cause permanent
amnesia and, in fact, improves memory and increases
intelligence.
Psychologist Sackeim also taught a generation of ECT
practitioners that
permanent amnesia from ECT is so rare that it could not be
studied. He
asserted that most people who said the treatment erased
years of memory were
mentally ill and thus not credible.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates
that more than 3
million people have received ECT over the past generation.
"Those patients
who reported permanent adverse effects on cognition have now
had their
experiences validated," said Linda Andre, head of the
Committee for Truth in
Psychiatry, a national organization of ECT recipients.
Since the mid-1980s, Sackeim worked as a consultant to the
ECT device
manufacturer Mecta Corp. He never revealed his financial
interest in ECT to
NIMH, as required by federal law, and, until 2002, did not
reveal it to New
York officials as required by state law.
Neuropsychopharmacology has endured
negative publicity over its failure to disclose financial
conflicts of
journal authors, resulting in the editor's resignation and a
promise to
disclose such conflicts in the future; yet there is no
disclosure of
Sackeim's long-term relationship with Mecta, nor did Sackeim
disclose his
financial conflict when his NIMH grant was renewed to 2009
at approximately
$500,000 per year.
The six-month study followed about 250 patients in New York
City hospitals,
an unusually large number; most ECT studies are based on 20
to 30 patients.
Sackeim's previously published studies were short term,
making it impossible
to assess long-term effects. "However, in other
contexts over the years --
court depositions, communications with mental health
officials, and grant
protocols -- Sackeim has claimed to follow up patients for
as long as five
years. This raises serious questions as to how long he has
actually known of
the existence and prevalence of permanent amnesia and why it
wasn't revealed
until now," Andre said.
Besides finding that ECT routinely causes substantial and
permanent amnesia,
the study contradicts Sackeim's oft-published statements
that ECT increases
intelligence and that patients who report permanent adverse
effects are
mentally ill.
"The study is a stunning self-repudiation of a 25-year
career," Andre said.
Committee for Truth in Psychiatry
http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v32/n1/pdf/1301180a.p
df
Regards,
Catherine
Do not follow where the path may lead;
go instead where there is no path and
leave a trail.
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