Update 2006: I have had some very nice emails from Dr. Samant’s child. He has since passed away, but these emails were very touching.

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Sydney Samant, M.D.
Clinical Psychiatry News
March 1983

“As a neurologist and electroencephalographer, I have seen many patients after ECT, and I have no doubt that ECT produces effects identical to those of a head injury. After multiple sessions of ECT, a patient has symptoms idenctical to those of a retired, punch-drunk boxer…After a few sessions of ECT the symptoms are those of moderate cerebral contusion, and further enthusiastic use of ECT may result in the patient functioning at a subhuman level. Electroconvulsive therapy in effect may be defined as a controlled type of brain damage produced by electrical means.”

Added: Jul 23, 2006 12:32 pm | Trackback URI |  Email This Post  | Print