Does ECT cause long-term memory loss?
The model consent form drafted by the American Psychiatric Association and copied by hospitals says that “perhaps 1 in 200” patients report lasting memory problems. “The reasons for these rare reports of long-lasting memory impairment are not fully unders tood,” it concludes. Critics such as David Oaks, director of the Support Coalition of Eugene, Ore., an advocacy group composed of former psychiatric patients, say that the 1 in 200 statistic is a sham. “It’s totally fictional and without scientific justification and is design ed to be reassuring,” said Oaks. Complaints about long-term memory loss are widespread among patients, Oaks said. Some insist that ECT wiped out memories of distant events, such as high school, or impaired their ability to learn new material. Harold A. Sackeim, chief of biological psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a member of the APA’s six-member shock therapy task force, says that the 1 in 200 figure is not derived from any scientific st
