Electroconvulsive therapy: calls to have it suspended ignore the evidence

By Keith Laws, Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychology, University of Hertfordshire
Sameer Jauhar, King's College London

Around 2,500 people in England receive electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) every year. This is a last resort treatment, used to help alleviate severe depression in people who have failed to respond to other treatments. ECT is administered by passing a small electrical current around the head of an anaesthetised person to induce a seizure.

Many misunderstandings persist about ECT’s effectiveness and safety. Part of this is due to negative…

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