As you may or may not be aware, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is legally administered in Florida and there are no age restrictions on this practice. ECT may be given to anyone of any age including children, the elderly and pregnant woman.

A manufacturer of an ECT device, Somatics, LLC, located in Venice, Florida, has made it known in a regulatory report released in October 2018 that:

It is essential that doctors planning to use the Thymatron® System IV read and follow the warnings and recommendations of the Task Force Report of the American Psychiatric Association as set forth in “The Practice of Electroconvulsive Therapy” (APA, 2001), which states, in part, that "A small minority of patients treated with ECT later report devastating cognitive consequences. Patients may indicate that they have dense amnesia extending far back into the past for events of personal significance or that broad as of cognitive function are so impaired that the patients are no longer able to engage in former occupations...in some patient self-reports of profound ECT-induced deficits may reflect objective loss of function...In rare cases, ECT may result in a dense and persistent retrograde amnesia extending to years...’

This same report now lists brain damage as a serious adverse event and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has indicated ECT for use in the treatment of severe major depressive episodes associated with major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar depressive disorder (BPD) in patients 18 years of age and older who are treatment-resistant or who require a rapid response due to the severity of their psychiatric or medical condition.

CCHR was instrumental in obtaining the first U.S. ban on the use of electroshock on children and adolescents in California in 1976.  Since then, three other U.S. states have prohibited its use for the pediatric and adolescent population—Colorado, Texas and Tennessee.  So potentially damaging is ECT that in 2014, the Western Australian government added criminal penalties to its Mental Health Act should ECT be administered to a child or adolescent younger than 14.  In 2017 India also banned electroshock use for children. [i]

As an example for the prohibition of ECT on children, Texas adopted the following simple statement:

Sec. 578.002.  USE OF ELECTROCONVULSIVE THERAPY.  (a)  Electroconvulsive therapy may not be used on a person who is younger than 16 years of age.

(b)  Unless the person consents to the use of the therapy in accordance with Section 578.003, electroconvulsive therapy may not be used on:

(1)  a person who is 16 years of age or older and who is voluntarily receiving mental health services; or

(2)  an involuntary patient who is 16 years of age or older and who has not been adjudicated by an appropriate court of law as incompetent to manage the patient's personal affairs.

(c)  Electroconvulsive therapy may not be used on an involuntary patient who is 16 years of age or older and who has been adjudicated incompetent to manage the patient's personal affairs unless the patient's guardian of the person consents to the treatment in accordance with Section 578.003.  The decision of the guardian must be based on knowledge of what the patient would desire, if known.

While it is our belief that ECT should not be administered to anyone, at the very least the use of ECT on children, pregnant women and the elderly should be banned in Florida.

[i] https://www.cchrint.org/ect-model-law/; http://www.healthyplace.com/depression/articles/pediatric-ect-electroconvulsive-therapy-in-adolescents-and-children/; “Electroshock therapy on under-14s banned in WA after law passes Parliament,” ABC News, 17 Oct. 2014, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-17/mental-health-bill-passes-wa-parliament/5822874