Thousands of women with mental health issues in England given ‘dangerous’ electric shocks to brain

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. He added: “We are aware of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ assertion that ‘rigorous scientific research has not found any evidence of physical brain damage to patients who have had ECT’. Dr Cunliffe, campaigning for an inquiry into how ECT is used in the UK, argued psychiatrists “downplay” side effects and fail to properly warn patients. “They were given several rounds of ECT because services and professionals around them thought they were resistant to treatment,” Dr Taylor, who set up Victim Focus, an organisation which tackles discrimination against abuse victims, added. In another circumstance, it is fatal – you’re not meant to get electrocuted.” She argued health professionals fail to properly explain the damage which ECT can cause and claimed psychiatrists sometimes “have a god complex”.