ECT in Video Games: New Study From Czechia

Out on PubMed, from authors Czechia, is this study:

Electroconvulsive therapy portrayal in contemporary video games.

Buday J, Neumann M, Žaludová Heidingerová J, Mareš T, Magyarová E, Thai Le H, Divácký D, Jirečková G, Albrecht J, Kališová L, Pol M, Mahrík J, Buday P, Anders M.Front Psychiatry. 2024 Jan 5;14:1336044. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1336044. eCollection 2023.PMID: 38250273 

The abstract is copied below:

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an important treatment modality in psychiatry, considered to be the most effective option for pharmaco-resistant affective and psychotic disorders. Despite its great efficacy, it still remains a rather controversial method, which hinders its full potential. It is feasible to say that in part, this controversy is caused by a largely negative image of ECT displayed through media. The depiction of ECT in movies has been studied and well documented in the past. The aim of our study was to provide an overview of how ECT is represented in video games - a form of media where ECT representation has been overlooked in scientific literature so far. As with movies, most of these portrayals are negative, depicting ECT as an obsolete, aggressive or torturous treatment method.

Keywords: electroconvulsive therapy (ECT); electroshock device; electroshock therapy; stigma; videogame.

The article is here.

And from the text:

This  is a well-presented study about a topic I didn't even know we needed to be worried about. But the data are slightly reassuring that the impact of ECT's negative portrayal in video games is relatively small. I also did not know about that recent incident in China in which "electroshock therapy" was being used to "treat" internet addiction. I am not even sure that was really ECT and not some aversive technique unrelated to ECT...