"Pope of ECT" Admits ECT
Causes Permanent Amnesia and Cognitive Deficits
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 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.pdf
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