ECT Editorial With Sensationalist Title

Out on PubMed, from 2 psychiatrists at the University of California,Riverside, is this editorial:

Should Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) be Banned for Schizophrenia?

Cummings MA, O'Day JA.CNS Spectr. 2021 Feb 1:1-12. doi: 10.1017/S1092852921000109. Online ahead of print.PMID: 33517952 
The pdf is here.
and from the text:
In conclusion, Read, et al identified methodological flaws in eleven studies of ECT for
depression and five related meta-analyses which evaluated 1 to 7 of these studies. Based on
their findings, they called for better-designed, more rigorous studies of ECT , as well as
immediate suspension of ECT use. While improved research and data are always a worthy goal
in medicine and psychiatry, the call for suspension of ECT use ignores decades of data
supporting the efficacy of ECT and also ignores a number of different lines of data indicating
ECT as effective in a variety of clinical circumstances, including treatment and clozapine-
resistant schizophrenia. Unlike a new and untried treatment, suspending or banning ECT in this
context would in our opinion constitute an unethical deprivation of treatment for many
patients who have few, if any, safe and viable alternatives.

This editorial, with an unfortunate sensationalist title, ends up saying the right things. Of course it would be unethical for ECT to be banned for the treatment of schizophrenia. 
It is unclear why the authors single out the schizophrenia indication for ECT.
Perhaps most unfortunately, this piece gives yet more oxygen to John Read's unhinged anti-ECT writings; they should be quickly discredited, called out for the the propaganda they are, and then forgotten.
The title of this piece, with the idea of possibly banning ECT, adds to, rather than decreases, the stigma problem facing ECT. 

Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 24, 2021 at 10:54 PM

    That editorial has been written to strenghten the impact of mine in a special edition of CNS Spectrums. I agree with you about the choice of the title because many readers will not go further and antipsychiatrists will cite the title only.
    I asked CNS Spectrums' Editor how many italians readers downloaded our paper...The reply is yet no one. Astonishing isn't it?

    ReplyDelete

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