Re: Electroconvulsive Therapy Causes Permanent Amnesia And Cognitive Deficits, Prominent Researcher Admits

December 22, 2006

Thank you, Jim. I have sent this on to quite a few people.

On 12/22/06, Jim <mofunnow@...> wrote:

>

> http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=59631

> Electroconvulsive Therapy Causes Permanent Amnesia And Cognitive Deficits,

> Prominent Researcher Admits

> Main Category: Psychology / Psychiatry News

> Article Date: 22 Dec 2006 - 0:00 PST

>

> 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 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.pdf

>

December 22, 2006