Electric shock therapy for mental health conditions

“Electric shock therapy for mental health conditions does not work for most people and can cause patients to lose treasured memories, experts have warned.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a medical procedure used to treat certain severe mental health conditions, such as manic depression, and involves passing a small electrical current through the brain to induce a brief seizure under general anaesthesia.

Around 2,500 people are treated each year on the NHS, often after drugs have proved ineffective.

But a study of more than 1,000 patients who have had the therapy found that 58.5 per cent believed ECT was not at all helpful, while 62 per cent said it made their quality of life worse. Nearly half said ECT made their life “much worse” or “very much worse”.

Researchers from the University of East London have called for the practice to be suspended.

First author Dr John Read, professor of clinical psychology at the university, said: “No studies show that ECT has any benefits at all beyond the end of treatment.

“Our findings, from the largest survey ever conducted indicate that claims that ECT is effective are, at best, unproven and, at worst, misleading.”

Patients have warned that they have lost memories through the treatment which have never come back.

Electroshock therapy involves  involves passing a small electrical current through the brain

Lisa Morrison, a mental health consultant, received 72 electric treatments over three years after suffering long-term depression during which she had attempted suicide and self-harmed, as a result of historic trauma.”

Read the whole article published in The Telegraph on August 12, 2025.