Tag: Royal College of Psychiatrists

More than 200 people signed an open letter to the FDA requesting electroconvulsive therapy’s safety studies and electrical dosing protocols.

An interview with John Read and Irving Kirsch to discuss their paper which calls to prohibit ECT. This is because the negative effects of ECT are so strong, the evidence supporting it is so weak (especially in the long-term and beyond the improvement due to placebo) and there are other means of addressing the difficulties that the person is struggling with.

My view is ECT should be treated as an experimental, unproven procedure (because it is) and stopped nationally pending rigorous controlled research which monitors whether it works better than placebo 6 months or years after the final session has stopped.

For those who have experienced harm the abuse starts by not being believed by GPs and psychiatrists when in withdrawal.  To then have abuse levelled at them on social media seems to confirm that psychiatry is not interested in learning from its mistakes, only about its preservation.

Values matter as much in the digital space as in everyday life. Despite the recent update by the Royal College of Psychiatrists of its professional values, it is disappointing that an opportunity has been missed to hold to account its own members for their behaviour on social media platforms.