Cuckoo's Nest PR Campaign to Deregulate Brain-Damaging Shock Devices Intensifies as Congress Investigates the FDA

While the US Congress is investigating the FDA on its proposal to deregulate Electro-Convulsive Therapy and other neurological brain devices without studying their harm, a recent slew of pro-shock news articles, all with very similar messages, have hit the mainstream media in an obvious campaign.

It really shouldn't be surprising that the FDA and its controversial, pharma- and medical device-connected Commissioner, Dr. Stephen Califf, would work to deregulate brain-damaging electric shock and the newer psychosurgery devices from Class III to Class II without testing them after their own hand-picked panel of experts voted this idea down in January 2011. It also shouldn't be surprising that Congress' Subcommittee on Oversight and Government Reform would investigate the FDA on its pending decision to put these dangerous devices in the same category as acupuncture needles and powered wheelchairs when Califf is connected to deep brain stimulation device manufacturer Medtronic and one of his FDA expert advisors is a former Duke colleague, psychiatrist Sarah Lisanby, who has a vested interest as a co-patent holder of a brain device and is one of the top spokespersons for Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) and brain-shock devices.

The recent pro-shock pieces in publications like the Washington Post and Scientific American try to claim that shock treatment was stigmatized by movies like "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" wherein actor Jack Nicholson was brutalized by psychiatry. They also falsely claim that shock is less dangerous now, when in fact, the shocks are more powerful and brain-damaging. The articles that are pushing for the FDA to make these shock devices and many more to come, grandfathered into approval by the FDA without testing, are also making the false claim that the newer forms of shock, that use "ultrabrief pulse," do less brain damage than the old machines.

In a submission against the deregulation of shock devices, biomedical engineer Kenneth Castleman, PhD. states, "...the modern Brief-pulse ECT devices deliver the same electric dose as their predecessors, but they do it in a much shorter time. This requires much higher levels of both voltage and current. The larger current increases the risk of thermal damage to the cells, while the stronger electric field increases the risk of tearing holes in the cell walls..." In other words, more brain damage is done than in recent years. The ECT machines give up to 450 volts of electricity to the brain which is much more than what was delivered in early years when people were zapped without the anesthesia and muscle relaxants used today. They couldn't use the same power of shock as today as bones used to break and teeth could shatter during the shock-created grand mal epileptic seizures. Today shock looks more comforting for those viewing it but the brain-damage has increased.

The exact amount of power from the various ECT devices is listed here:

ECTRON Series 5A 225 volts 0.75 Amps
MECTA SR2 240 volts 0.8 Amps
MECTA SR2 240 volts 0.8 Amps
MECTA SR2 240 volts 0.8 Amps
THYMATRON DGx (UK) 450 volts 0.9 Amps
THYMATRON DGx (USA) 450 volts 0.9 Amps
THYMATRON DGx (EUROPE) 450 volts 0.9 Amps

and the newest Thymatron System IV brief pulse machine has the same power the most powerful shock device above.

While those with the vested interest in making far more than today's $5 billion/year brain-shock industry pulls in are making false claims about the safety and efficacy of these machines, a study was done recently that was linked into this Huffington Post article, entitled “Electroconvulsive (ECT) therapy reduces frontal cortical connectivity in severe depressive disorder.” In the article, psychiatrist Peter Breggin explains that the specific area that is shown to be targeted by ECT in the study, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortical region, "is the same area assaulted by surgical lobotomy."

Another expert with nothing to financially gain by speaking out, Dr. Michael Chavin, an anesthesiologist who helped to deliver over 2,000 ECT's states: “There is a shock wave through the brain, causing the brain to discharge energy in a very chaotic type of state. And this increases metabolism to a very high level which deprives the brain of oxygen and can actually destroy brain cells.”

Although memory loss, often permanent, is a known side effect of ECT, death seems to be a side effect that has been greatly covered up as a 4 month USA Today investigation proved when showing the death rate in elderly to be 1 in 200 as opposed to the 1 in 10,000 as claimed by the American Psychiatric Association and the shock device manufacturers.

With all the above, it is pretty obvious that Congress should prevent the FDA and its Commissioner from making brain shock and neurological devices readily available with deregulation and their stamp of approval. This is especially true when psychiatrists often take patients to court to force them to be shocked against their will and use the threat of forced-shock to make people comply with procedures they deem harmful to themselves. At the least, the FDA should require full clinical trials from the shock and neurological brain device manufacturers before approving the machines and this is something they will never agree to as they know what people have known since "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" - that these devices are too dangerous to be on the market.