Electroconvulsive Therapy and Brain Damage: Survey of the Evidence From a Philosophical Promontory

In a combination of literature review and theoretical article, the author analyzes a broad variety of scientific and real-world evidence that iatrogenic brain damage results from electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The author critically reevaluates the evidence using knowledge of basic biology and logic, and, to a lesser extent, the author makes ethical observations and legal implications. Despite many scientific and governmental authorities having concluded that ECT does not cause brain damage, there is significant evidence that ECT has indeed caused brain damage in some patients, both historically and recently, and evidence that it always causes some form or degree of brain damage.