Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Looking for People to Talk to Me about Involuntary Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT or "shock" treatments)



As our regular readers may know, we are working on a book called Committed: The Battle Over Forced Psychiatric Care.  In Maryland, there is no provision for people to have ECT against their will, it's a voluntary procedure and someone else can't sign you up.  Before I learned about it from Shrink Rap readers, I didn't realize that there are other states where ECT can be court-ordered and done against a patient's will. 

I'm interested in talking to people about their experiences with involuntary ECT.  Anyone with a personal story is invited -- patients who've had it (court-ordered, not cases where people have been cajoled into voluntary treatment), but also family members, doctors, nurses, and the staff who do it, and even the judges who order it.  

I can be reached at email : shrinkrapblog at gmail dot com, by writing a comment on this post, or via Twitter @Shrinkrapdinah.  If you have no personal connection to forced ECT, please don't comment.  I do already know that many people think it's awful. 

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