However, Dr Read claimed the Nice guidelines are routinely ignored. His study found many NHS trusts admitted to giving patients ECT without first offering them treatments such as counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy.
I couldn’t remember the names of people. I would get through a sentence and forget the word for a house. I’d lost vocab. I couldn’t remember my kids’ birthdays. You lose all your memories from years ago
Sue Cunliffe
The academic, who worked as a clinical psychologist for almost 20 years, also argued guidelines are “very weak” as they fail to spell out specific risks patients should be told about.
“They also don’t spell out the fact ECT is barely better than placebo,” he added. “We have bombarded Nice with research showing that ECT is unsafe in terms of causing brain damage and memory loss. They have just ignored our correspondence.”
In every country where research has been conducted, ECT is used twice as much on women as men, Dr Read said. He noted most psychiatrists in the UK will not use ECT on patients but suggested they would speak out against their colleagues who do so.
Dr Read said the most recent efficacy study was conducted in 1985 and argued previous research showed very little evidence of its positive impacts.
“A major adverse effect is memory loss. Studies find between 12 and 55 per cent of people get long-lasting or permanent brain damage which results in memory loss,” he added.
“We also know women and older people who are the target groups are paradoxically more likely to suffer memory loss than other people. They should be the groups who are getting it less because of the dangers.”
Sue Cunliffe, who began ECT in 2004, told The Independent it “completely destroyed” her life despite a psychiatrist telling her there would be no long-term side effects.
The former children’s doctor, 55, was referred to a psychiatrist after suffering from depression following issues with her ex-husband, to whom she was married to for two decades.
Dr Cunliffe underwent two courses of ECT, involving 21 sessions, each under general anaesthetic in hospital. She said she suffered “dreadful” memory loss throughout the treatment
“By the end of it, I couldn’t recognise relatives or friends,” she said. “I couldn’t count money out. I couldn’t do my two times table. I couldn’t navigate anywhere. I couldn’t remember what I’d done from one minute to another.
“I couldn’t remember the names of people. I would get through a sentence and forget the word for a house. I’d lost vocab. I couldn’t remember my kids’ birthdays. You lose all your memories from years ago.”
Peter McCabe, chief executive of Headway, the brain injury association, said he was “concerned with reports from patients experiencing neurological difficulties after ECT” and called for further research and an urgent review.
He added: “We are aware of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ assertion that ‘rigorous scientific research has not found any evidence of physical brain damage to patients who have had ECT’. However, it also accepts further research into the long-term effects of this treatment is needed.”
Stephen Buckley, mental health spokesman at Mind, told The Independent the charity backed calls for a “comprehensive review into the use of ECT,” which he described as a “potentially risky physical treatment”.
Alexa Knight, associate director of policy and practice at the charity Rethink Mental Illness, stressed consent for ECT must be sought from patients and noted this was currently not required if the individual is treated in an emergency under the Mental Health Act.
Indy Cross, chief executive of Agenda, a charity which campaigns for women and girls at risk, called for ECT to “be banned immediately”.
During her second course of the treatment, Dr Cunliffe said her side effects worsened as the doses of electric shocks increased – rising from around 460 to 700 milicombes. The maximum dose in Europe and America is 500 milicombes but in Britain dosage can be increased to a maximum of 1000 milicombes.
She said: “What is important and what is never discussed is the fact your brain doesn’t like to fit. Every time you go in, you need a different dose of electricity to fit.
“They are still unclear as to how to dose safely and actually when they give you larger doses, they do not tell you the treatment is getting riskier in terms of brain damage.”
In my view, there is never a good reason to give an animal or human electric shocks to the brain. In another circumstance, it is fatal - you’re not meant to get electrocuted.
Dr Jessica Taylor
Dr Cunliffe said health professionals initially dismissed her symptoms being the consequences of ECT. However, in 2007, an NHS neuropsychologist diagnosed her with reduced brain functioning from ECT, she said.
By then, Dr Cunliffe was unable to use computers and struggled to read, problems which persisted for years after her ECT and stopped her being able to work.
“I forgot huge swathes of my medical knowledge,” she added. “It was very distressing. It is 17 years since I finished the treatment and I’ve made a lot of improvements. But I get excessively tired and I have been left with the long-term effects of brain damage.”
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