Linda Andre's new book scheduled for 2008 publication If you visit ect.org next year, expect that I'll be promoting Linda Andre's new book! And you'd better plan on buying. Her book was purchased this week by a major publisher! This book will shed light on an industry that has fed on a plague of self deception, of defensiveness, and of outright lies. Might as well put the shock industry on official notice: the chipping away at your ivory wall continues. This time, Ms. Linda Andre will be wielding a jackhammer. I confess I've had a peek, and the writing is stunning. That's not a surprise to me and won't be to anyone who knows Linda's skills. It may be a surprise to the "gang" ... (more...)

Added: Mar 11, 2007 11:04 pm | 3 Comments |  Email This Post  | Print

Here are a number of clips from the videotaped deposition of Harold Sackeim (2004). Sackeim was the expert witness for Mecta in a lawsuit in California. You can read most of the deposition here, in PDF format. I'm splitting the videos into two pages to reduce your load. If the page loads slowly, or the videos don't load, try again in thirty minutes...it's likely YouTube is down. Richard Abrams is defensive, says Harold Sackeim Harold Sackeim, king of ECT, discusses his complaints about Richard Abrams, president of Somatics, Inc., saying that Abrams is defensive because of the "fascist" groups, and goes too far with his defensiveness by ignoring the "problems" inherent with ECT. Meow! [gv data="G9zm6Cqabc4"width="425" height="350"][/gv] Harold Sackeim tells ... (more...)

Added: Aug 3, 2006 12:21 am | 2 Comments |  Email This Post  | Print

The Awakening This clip is an interesting explanation of why psychiatrists have apparently been unaware for 70 years that ECT can and does cause profound memory loss and cognitive damage. The reason? Because until a few years ago, the only persons who complained of severe memory loss also said it didn't help them. It took finding some patients who experienced devastating memory loss who would also proclaim it "saved their life" before Harold Sackeim would listen. Hey, I'm not the one who said it...Harold is. He's the champion of the shock patient, at least in his own head. Maybe he needs to revisit the early years of Sackeimology, when his research revolved around self deception, the lies we tell ourselves. Harold (call him ... (more...)

Added: Aug 3, 2006 12:20 am | Comment |  Email This Post  | Print

CBS News July 30, 2006 In Connection With Its Actions As It Reviewed Safety of Vioxx (CBS) Since Vioxx was pulled from the market in September, 2004 for increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes, Merck has been slapped with more than 16,000 lawsuits.Now, as CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports, documents turned over in some of those cases are providing new glimpses into the relationship between the FDA and Merck – a relationship that critics say was far too cozy. Well before Vioxx was pulled from the market, an FDA senior scientist, Dr. David Graham had flagged its heart issues. But, e-mails and handwritten notes reviewed by CBS News suggest FDA management which was supposed to be regulating Merck was giving the ... (more...)

Added: Jul 31, 2006 2:43 am | Comment |  Email This Post  | Print

HOW TO GET INTO THE SHOCK MACHINE BUSINESS: The true story of Gorham and Robin Nicol! by Linda Andre Note: The following may seem incredible, but it comes straight from the horses' ass---er, mouth. It is based on the testimony of Gorham Nicol at the trial of his shock machine company Mecta in October 2005. All quotes are from the court transcript. With all the media coverage on the "comeback of ECT" over the past thirty years, you've probably been wondering how you can get a little piece of the action. You may have thought about starting your very own shock machine company, but didn't know how. Perhaps you thought you didn't qualify to run a medical device ... (more...)

Added: Jul 26, 2006 12:01 pm | Comment |  Email This Post  | Print

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT STONY BROOK SCHOOL OF MEDICINE - DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY P.O. BOX 457 ST. JAMES, N. Y. 11780 PHONE: 516-444-2929 October 26, 1990 Dockets Management Branch (HFA-305) Food and Drug Administration 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 4-62 Rockville, MD 20857 Ref: 21 CFR Part 882 Docket # 82P-0316 Gentlemen: The FDA proposed reclassification of ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) devices to class II is commendable. The restriction in labelling for patients with "Major Depression with Melancholia" is inconsistent, however, with present practice, international experience since 1934, and numerous recent expert reviews, notable that of the Royal College of Psychiatrists of Great Britain in 1989 (1) and the American Psychiatric Association in 1990 (2). Nor is it consistent with the changing diagnostic schemes which are now ... (more...)

Added: Jul 22, 2006 12:19 pm | Comment |  Email This Post  | Print

Food and Drug Administration Action Is Required Arch Gen Psychiatry 2000; 57:445-446 Richard Abrams, MD SUBSTANTIAL research funds and energy have been expended over several decades in attempts to determine the benefits and risks of bilateral and right unilateral electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Proponents of each method are divided into opposing camps; having been on both sides of the issue, I believe I can fairly state the arguments for each side as follows. Those favoring bilateral ECT point to the controlled trials demonstrating its greater efficacy and discount its more pronounced adverse cognitive effects as being transient and not different from those of right unilateral ECT weeks or months after a course of treatment. The very infrequent occurrence of prolonged memory impairment after ... (more...)

Added: Jul 22, 2006 12:19 pm | Comment |  Email This Post  | Print

A DIALOGUE WITH THE FDA ON ELECTROSHOCK The Center for Devices, Bethesda, Maryland, May 4, 1992 _____ Present, FDA: _____ Phillip White, Director of Office of Standards and Regulations Midge Brier, Secretary to Mr. White London Haflin(?), Office of Science and Technology Gordon Johnson, MD, Head of Office of Health Affairs Lynne Reamer, Assoc. Dir., Office of Device Evaluation Elizabeth Jacobson, Deputy Director, Center for Devices and Radiological Health _____ Present, Support Coalition International: _____ Sally Clay, PEOPLe, Ulster County, NY Larry Plumlee, MD, National Capital Area Advocates, Washington, DC Dennis Nester, Phoenix, Arizona Linda Andre, Committee on Truth in Psychiatry, New York, NY Louisa Jackson, PEOPLe, Dutchess County, NY George Ebert, The Alliance, Syracuse, New York Mary Ann Ebert The Alliance, Syracuse, New York SALLY-First I should say that we represent a nationwide, even an ... (more...)

Added: Jul 22, 2006 12:19 pm | Comment |  Email This Post  | Print

University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences 3333 Green Bay Road North Chicago, Illinois 60064-3095 Telephone 708.578.3331 October 10, 1990 Dockets Management Branch FDA Room 4-62 5600 Fishers Lane Rockville MD 20857 Re: 21 CFR Part 882 (Docket No. 82P-0316): Neurological devices; proposed rule to reclassify the electroconvulsive therapy device intended for use in treating severe depression Gentlemen: I have the following comments concerning the above-referenced proposed rule, which appeared in the Federal Register, vol. 55, No. 172, pp. 36578-36590, Wednesday, September 5, 1990. 1. Limitation of intended use to severe depression, as defined by DSM-III-R criteria for major depressive episode with melancholia. (section IV, p. 36580) a. Exclusion of non-melancholic major depressives. The 5 references cited in support of this proposed limitation are mostly outdated--4 of them appeared between 1953 ... (more...)

Added: Jul 22, 2006 12:19 pm | Comment |  Email This Post  | Print

Hello. My name is Anne Krauss. I'm presently employed as the Administrator for the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy, although I am here today as a private citizen, not as a representative for that organization. Up until March 21 this year, I worked for the New York State Office of Mental Health as Recipient Affairs Specialist for Long Island. On March 9, I received a call from John Tauriello, Deputy Commissioner and Counsel of the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYS OMH) and Robert Meyers, NYS OMH Deputy Director of the Division of Community Care Systems Management. They informed me that if I continued to actively advocate on behalf of Paul Thomas in his efforts to ... (more...)

Added: Jul 22, 2006 12:11 pm | 1 Comment |  Email This Post  | Print

Audio Tune in every Tuesday at 1 ET (12 Central, 10 am Pacific) for the Mind Freedom Weekly News Hour, hosted by David Oaks. http://www.progressiveradionetwork.org/ Electroshock as violence against women: Dr. Bonnie Burstow explores electroshock as a form of violence against women. She is a feminist therapist, an anti-psychiatry and anti-fascist activist. She is also the former co-chiar of the Ontario Coalition Against Electroshock and is the author of Radical Feminist Therapy: Working in the Context of Violence. Listen Weekly Paul Henri Thomas updates: WGBB radio has vowed that it will carry weekly updates until Paul Henri is no longer at risk of forced electroshock treatments. You may listen to the show live on the net on Monday nights at 7 pm ... (more...)

Added: Jul 19, 2006 10:04 pm | 13 Comments |  Email This Post  | Print

The Surgeon General’s New Clothes: How the press and the SG distort the truth about mental distress (also available in Perspectives Mental Health Magazine, April-May, 2000): By Richard Shulman, Ph.D. Following the issue of the Surgeon General’s report on mental health (December, ’99), press headlines echoed Dr. David Satcher in declaring a new era of enlightened understanding. Headlines and media sound bites proclaimed science’s demonstration that emotional disorders and behavioral problems were truly legitimate physical illnesses, some would say brain disorders, rooted in genetics and biochemistry. Imagine how surprised the writers of such headlines might be to discover these research summaries in the professional literature: * “Few lesions or physiologic abnormalities define the mental disorders, and for the most part their causes remain unknown.” * “[N]o single gene has ... (more...)

Added: Jul 14, 2006 5:35 pm | Comment |  Email This Post  | Print