Parliament member asks for shock therapy limitations

Helen Smith told Parliament's health committee that electro-convulsive therapy was based on a mistaken 1930s idea that epileptics did not have schizophrenia – therefore inducing seizures in those who did would cure them.
"Unfortunately, it hasn't worked, and it's really the scientific equivalent of hitting someone over the head with a softball bat.
"As doctors and physicians, we look upon the seizures and convulsions as harmful to the body and brain and medicate against epileptic fits. Yet here, psychiatrists were creating convulsions based on a mistaken notion that if you're an epileptic, you cannot be a schizophrenic – not very good scientific logic, and yet ECT continues today."
Dr Smith's comments came during a hearing on a petition she has taken to have the treatment – supplied to 305 patients in the 2003-04 year – banned for children, pregnant women and the elderly.
The committee began hearing the petition in the last Parliament, but held the issue over as there was not time to deliberate before the election.
A preliminary report said future hearings should take evidence from medical professionals who prescribed and administered the treatment. Auckland University psychology senior lecturer John Read, who appeared before the committee with Dr Smith, said a Health Ministry review of ECT found no evidence of its effectiveness, but still recommended it continue. He said the finding did not make sense.
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Auckland Hospital psychiatrist Thomas Rudegeair, also with Dr Smith, said ECT was known to cause persistent memory loss, which in his view was the same as brain damage. It could be particularly harmful to elderly patients, who were most commonly given the treatment.
He conceded ECT helped patients who were in catatonic states and at risk of dying through not being able to eat, but in most cases it was given to patients who were not at risk.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists said in a written submission that ECT should not be banned for the three groups as there were "clear indications" it was useful in their treatment and safe. It said there was no evidence the treatments were being applied inappropriately