Still Avoiding the Facts

Remarkably, the detailed Sackeim et al. (2007) study leaves out some of the most important details, such as exactly what proportion of patients 

Sackeim et al. (2007) also failed to address the real-life impact of these losses on individual patients and did not provide any clinical vignettes. Stating that shock treatment permanently reduces memory and cognitive function, and describing it statistically, failed to capture the manner in which the treatment destroyed the minds of these patients and wrecked their lives. That is why I opened the chapter with the story of Sarah Williams. 

Did his own research at last induce Harold Sackeim to make public statements withdrawing his previous wholehearted support for ECT To the contrary, shortly after the publication of his paper I began to receive calls from the media asking me to respond to promotional claims by Dr. Sackeim in support of a supposedly new and improved form of ECT that sounded very much like the same old thing. One is left to wonder what drives so many mental health professionals in such an unrelenting, remorseless fashion to damage the brains of their patients. 

---