The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) International has released a review of more than 50 psychiatric hospitals across 23 states that administer electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), finding that none have updated their materials to reflect the adverse effects the FDA required for mitigating risks in 2018. The analysis, which examined hospital websites, found grossly inadequate risk information, with tens of thousands of Americans, including children, not being warned about long-term memory loss and potential brain damage. CCHR states that this warrants a government investigation and review of the need to ban ECT devices.
The FDA's 2018 final rule reclassified ECT devices from high-risk Class III to lower-risk Class II for limited uses, partly by requiring patient labeling to warn that "[t]he long-term safety and effectiveness of ECT treatment has not been demonstrated" and recommending formal neuropsychological assessments before and during treatment to monitor cognitive damage. However, none of the facilities report this. The review also shows that hospitals failed to warn of permanent memory loss (88% of hospitals), cardiovascular problems (69%), and the right to refuse consent (88%).
ECT delivers up to 460 volts of electricity through the brain to induce a grand mal seizure, involving loss of consciousness and violent muscle contractions masked by anesthetics and muscle relaxants. Higher voltages used today have increased risks. Devices were grandfathered in 1976 without premarket approval or clinical trials proving safety and efficacy. Despite the FDA's 2018 final rule specifying no clinical data supporting safety and efficacy for schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or mania, 71% of the hospitals promote ECT for schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorders, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, and 35% promote it for mania. The FDA lists mania and worsening psychiatric symptoms as adverse effects.
Many hospital claims are misleading and unsubstantiated, comparing ECT to jump-starting a car battery (a jump start uses 12 to 14 volts, while ECT uses more than 30 times that), turning the brain on and off like a computer, or being "no worse than going to the dentist." Neuropathologists equate ECT's effects to traumatic brain injury, with victims suffering permanent cognitive impairment. Expert testimony before the Nebraska Supreme Court in 2025 concluded that "ECT causes persistent or permanent memory loss and brain damage in a substantial proportion of recipients—somewhere between 12% and 55%."
Federal agencies bear much of ECT's costs, even though psychiatrists admit it cannot cure and often requires ongoing maintenance treatments. A private insurance analysis found ECT patients hospitalized 4 to 29 days longer than those receiving standard treatment, with additional healthcare costs of $5,700 to $52,700. ECT is estimated to be a $5.05 – $7.6 billion-a-year industry. CCHR President Jan Eastgate, who received ECT in 1975 after a misdiagnosis, said she was told it was the same as jump-starting the heart with no major side effects. "It was a lie," she said. "The claims comparing it to dental work, childbirth, or defibrillating the heart are fraudulent, and the practice should be banned."
CCHR, established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, calls for individuals damaged by ECT to report the abuse to it and encourages families and doctors to watch its documentary, Electroshock: Therapy or Torture.
