Popular on EntSun
- The World's No.1 Superstar Dies After Choking on a French Fry - 145
- NEMTAC Announces New Board of Directors Officers for 2024-2025
- One Dream, Three Amazing Journeys… On and Off the Basketball Court
- Vantiva Receives 2024 RDK "Distinguished Leader Award"
- FEM Provides a Safe, Free Space for Female Business Owners
- Diana Partners With OpsVeda To Leverage AI-ML To Get Closer To Its Consumers
- Immigrant Artists Explore Cultural, Historical and Social Experiences in "Unlocked Identities" Exhibition
- AVTECH Announces New Room Alert Bundles for Heat Safety and Enhanced Indoor Air Quality Monitoring
- Atomic Age Cinema Fest returns to Hollywood
- Human Resources Strategy Forum Celebrates 30 Years Empowering Leaders, Shaping the Next Generation of HR Innovators
Similar on EntSun
- CRH Healthcare Acquires Four Urgent Care Clinics in Georgia
- eCaregivers Launches First-Ever Consumer-Driven Senior Care Platform for Private-Pay Home Care Offering Affordable, Full-Service Agency Experience
- IGC Pharma Wins 2 Awards in Phase 1 of NIA's AI PREPARE Challenge, Advancing Alzheimer's Early Prediction Research
- New Study Reveals Alarming Cardiac Risks Associated with Electroshock Treatment
- Celebrating 30 Years: 2024 Diversity Visa Lottery Opens Oct. 2, Offering Life-Changing Opportunities for U.S. Immigration
- How to Get a Handicap Placard in California: Simplifying the Process for Disabled Drivers HandicapMD.com Offers Easy Online Certification for Disabled
- Dr Joy Dental Clinic Recognized as a Superbrand for 2024
- Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies Celebrates New Doctor of Behavioral Health Graduates
- Local Provider Roadrunner Health Services Outperforms Corporate Competitors in New Mexico's Correctional Facilities
- Non Profit Organization "The Breast Cancer Fundraiser" Prepares for Breast Cancer Awareness Month
FDA Again Pursues Ban on Behavioral Electroshock Device
EntSun News/11020464
CCHR urges a ban be extended to all shock machines used for behavioral and mental health treatment, citing brain damage and other harms.
LOS ANGELES - EntSun -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is pushing again to ban the use of electrical stimulation devices (ESD) for behavior modification, determining that they present an "unreasonable and substantial risk of illness or injury."[1] Organizations such as the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International and the United Nations Committee Against Torture have long called for the device and its electroshock practice to be outlawed. The device is solely used on students at a behavioral facility in Canton, Massachusetts.
The FDA previously banned the ESD, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit claimed the FDA did not have the authority to ban the practice. In 2023, Congress passed a bill defining the FDA's ability to do this.[2]
A disturbing video of a student, Andre McCollins, being shocked and restrained for seven hours after he refused to take his coat off when instructed to, further ignited the campaign for a ban. He was shocked 31 times while he cried out, "Please stop, please stop." When it was over, McCollins had burn wounds on his arms and legs, reported the disability rights group, ADAPT.[3]
A decade later, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, said the aversion therapy using this device was torture and sent an urgent appeal to the U.S. government asking it to investigate.[4] Speaking about electroshock treatment in general, Mr. Nowak told CCHR in an interview, "Against-your-will electroshock therapy is in my opinion absolutely prohibited."[5]
In 2012, another Special Rapporteur, Juan Mendez, called for the torturous practice to end, stating: "The passage of electricity through anybody's body is clearly associated with pain and suffering." Mendez, a human rights lawyer during the Argentina "Dirty War" knew only too well how brutal the practice is, himself a victim of police electroshock torture in 1975.[6]
CCHR says that, astonishingly, the FDA originally classified the device, called a Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED), as an Aversive Conditioning Device because researchers considered that the pain or discomfort it inflicted was an indicator of "effectiveness."[7]
Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International, said, similar analogies have been used to justify the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on 100,000 Americans each year, including 5-year-olds.
More on EntSun News
The GED uses 9 volts, while an ECT device uses 50 times that—up to 460 volts—but "with ECT, the electrical assault on the body," Eastgate said, "is masked by an anesthetic and muscle relaxant."
A GED-4 emits 45.5 milliamps of electricity—more than 15 times as powerful as stun belts used on incarcerated adults that deliver shocks of 3 to 4 milliamps. Modern electroshock delivers a pulse of current to the brain that is 7.5 times stronger than electrical fences used to deter wild bears.[8]
The GED was developed by a psychologist and founder of the MA facility, who came up with the idea of a punishment regime for children when he read a novel called Walden Two, written by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner. The book described a fictitious utopian community in which positive behavior is encouraged and negative behavior is thwarted. The Guardian reported that in 2007, staff "received a call from a senior manager instructing them to administer shocks to two badly behaved students aged 16 and 19. Over the following three hours, one of the boys was given 77 shocks, the other 29. It was later revealed that the phone call had been made not by a manager but by a prankster." The psychologist and head of the facility was forced and "sentenced to five years' probation. Despite his departure, the electric shocks have continued."[9]
Eastgate said that the "use of electroshock for any form of mental health or behavioral therapy, is not only harmful but also a draconian practice—an admission of abject failure that in order to help individuals pain and force must be resorted to."
Since 1976, when the FDA began to regulate medical devices and grandfathered in the ECT device under the Medical Device Amendment Act, CCHR has called for a ban of all electroshock devices. It has successfully obtained legislation banning its use on minors in several U.S. states and Western Australia but continues to demand it be prohibited for all ages.
In 2018, the manufacturer of one electroshock device admitted that ECT can cause brain damage.[10] The FDA has resisted all consumer, family and industry concerns about ECT, allowing the electroshock devices to remain on the market without clinical trials proving their safety and efficacy.
In November 2023, Massachusetts introduced an "An Act regarding the use of aversive therapy," which bans any facility from administering "any procedure which causes obvious signs of physical pain, including, but not limited to, hitting, pinching, and electric shock for the purposes of changing the behavior of the person."[11]
More on EntSun News
CCHR wrote to all MA state legislators supporting the bill, reiterating that the FDA had determined that the shock device presented "substantial risks of both physical and psychological injury." They say this also applies to all electroshock treatment devices.
"You're not allowed to use electric shock on prisoners or prisoners of war or convicted terrorists," said Nancy Weiss, a retired professor who has helped organize opposition to the GED practice since 1993. Weiss said a ban on the use of painful electroshocks will be fought by those using the device because "this is how they make their money."[12] The behavioral therapy has a lucrative annual price tag of $200,000 per student.[13]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) just offered a higher incentive for psychiatrists to electroshock their patients, increasing the charge per treatment from $385.58 to $660.30.[14] It is already a more than $3 billion-a-year industry.
The FDA has called for public comments on the proposed GED ban until May 28 before issuing a final ruling.[15]
About CCHR: CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry. It has helped achieve many laws that protect patients from abuse in the mental health system.
Sources:
[1] www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/fda-moves-again-to-ban-controversial-shock-therapy-devices-used-by-rotenberg-center/article_5b3792d4-3dd0-5745-a92b-332edf69b33f.html
[2] www.bostonglobe.com/2023/01/30/opinion/will-shock-treatment-finally-be-banned/
[3] adapt.org/andre-mccollins-a-judge-rotenberg-torture-center-survivors-story/
[4] abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/story?id=11047334
[5] www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cchr-supports-uns-and-rights-groups-demand-for-urgent-fda-ban-on-skin-electric-shock-devices-300770689.html
[6] www.cchrint.org/2012/06/21/electroshocktorturekid/;
[7] www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/03/06/2020-04328/banned-devices-electrical-stimulation-devices-for-self-injurious-or-aggressive-behavior; http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/
[8] abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/story?id=11047334.; www.huffpost.com/entry/abuse-is-not-the-answer-shut-down-the-judge-rotenberg_b_585be5dde4b068764965bab3.
[9] www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/16/judge-rotenberg-center-massachusetts-electric-shocks
[10] www.cchrint.org/2023/06/23/consumers-unaware-that-brain-damaging-electroshock-devices-are-not-fda-approved/
[11] malegislature.gov/Bills/193/H180
[12] www.cchrint.org/2023/10/13/ma-bill-ban-electroshock-aversion-therapy-needed-nationwide/ citing www.wcvb.com/article/5-investigates-judge-rotenberg-center-shock-therapy/42526127; autisticadvocacy.org/stoptheshock/; www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/decades-long-fight-over-electric-shock-treatment-led-fda-ban-n1265546
[13] www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cchr-supports-uns-and-rights-groups-demand-for-urgent-fda-ban-on-skin-electric-shock-devices-300770689.html citing abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/story?id=11047334
[14] bhbusiness.com/2024/03/28/cms-proposed-2-7-rate-hike-for-inpatient-psychiatric-facilities-in-2025/
[15] www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/03/26/2024-06037/banned-devices-proposal-to-ban-electrical-stimulation-devices-for-self-injurious-or-aggressive
The FDA previously banned the ESD, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit claimed the FDA did not have the authority to ban the practice. In 2023, Congress passed a bill defining the FDA's ability to do this.[2]
A disturbing video of a student, Andre McCollins, being shocked and restrained for seven hours after he refused to take his coat off when instructed to, further ignited the campaign for a ban. He was shocked 31 times while he cried out, "Please stop, please stop." When it was over, McCollins had burn wounds on his arms and legs, reported the disability rights group, ADAPT.[3]
A decade later, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak, said the aversion therapy using this device was torture and sent an urgent appeal to the U.S. government asking it to investigate.[4] Speaking about electroshock treatment in general, Mr. Nowak told CCHR in an interview, "Against-your-will electroshock therapy is in my opinion absolutely prohibited."[5]
In 2012, another Special Rapporteur, Juan Mendez, called for the torturous practice to end, stating: "The passage of electricity through anybody's body is clearly associated with pain and suffering." Mendez, a human rights lawyer during the Argentina "Dirty War" knew only too well how brutal the practice is, himself a victim of police electroshock torture in 1975.[6]
CCHR says that, astonishingly, the FDA originally classified the device, called a Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED), as an Aversive Conditioning Device because researchers considered that the pain or discomfort it inflicted was an indicator of "effectiveness."[7]
Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International, said, similar analogies have been used to justify the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on 100,000 Americans each year, including 5-year-olds.
More on EntSun News
- Celebrate the Holidays with Free Flute and Guitar Concerts: "May Your Days Be Merry & Bright"
- Family Story Day Returns to El Paso
- Agency ends 3rd quarter with Welcoming 16 Hand Selected Influencers out of Thousands of Applicants
- Scout & Cellar Becomes First Winery in Texas to Receive B Corp Certification
- CRH Healthcare Acquires Four Urgent Care Clinics in Georgia
The GED uses 9 volts, while an ECT device uses 50 times that—up to 460 volts—but "with ECT, the electrical assault on the body," Eastgate said, "is masked by an anesthetic and muscle relaxant."
A GED-4 emits 45.5 milliamps of electricity—more than 15 times as powerful as stun belts used on incarcerated adults that deliver shocks of 3 to 4 milliamps. Modern electroshock delivers a pulse of current to the brain that is 7.5 times stronger than electrical fences used to deter wild bears.[8]
The GED was developed by a psychologist and founder of the MA facility, who came up with the idea of a punishment regime for children when he read a novel called Walden Two, written by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner. The book described a fictitious utopian community in which positive behavior is encouraged and negative behavior is thwarted. The Guardian reported that in 2007, staff "received a call from a senior manager instructing them to administer shocks to two badly behaved students aged 16 and 19. Over the following three hours, one of the boys was given 77 shocks, the other 29. It was later revealed that the phone call had been made not by a manager but by a prankster." The psychologist and head of the facility was forced and "sentenced to five years' probation. Despite his departure, the electric shocks have continued."[9]
Eastgate said that the "use of electroshock for any form of mental health or behavioral therapy, is not only harmful but also a draconian practice—an admission of abject failure that in order to help individuals pain and force must be resorted to."
Since 1976, when the FDA began to regulate medical devices and grandfathered in the ECT device under the Medical Device Amendment Act, CCHR has called for a ban of all electroshock devices. It has successfully obtained legislation banning its use on minors in several U.S. states and Western Australia but continues to demand it be prohibited for all ages.
In 2018, the manufacturer of one electroshock device admitted that ECT can cause brain damage.[10] The FDA has resisted all consumer, family and industry concerns about ECT, allowing the electroshock devices to remain on the market without clinical trials proving their safety and efficacy.
In November 2023, Massachusetts introduced an "An Act regarding the use of aversive therapy," which bans any facility from administering "any procedure which causes obvious signs of physical pain, including, but not limited to, hitting, pinching, and electric shock for the purposes of changing the behavior of the person."[11]
More on EntSun News
- Mezzo-Soprano Tracie Luck Returns to the Weinberg Center Stage
- eCaregivers Launches First-Ever Consumer-Driven Senior Care Platform for Private-Pay Home Care Offering Affordable, Full-Service Agency Experience
- SS United States To Be Sunk For Fish Reef in Florida, America Lost Her Ship Movie to Depict
- SVEA Talent Agency Selects Phillip E Walker for Exclusive Los Angeles Area Commercial Representation
- The 2024 SHEEN Magazine Awards 10th Anniversary: A Night to Remember!
CCHR wrote to all MA state legislators supporting the bill, reiterating that the FDA had determined that the shock device presented "substantial risks of both physical and psychological injury." They say this also applies to all electroshock treatment devices.
"You're not allowed to use electric shock on prisoners or prisoners of war or convicted terrorists," said Nancy Weiss, a retired professor who has helped organize opposition to the GED practice since 1993. Weiss said a ban on the use of painful electroshocks will be fought by those using the device because "this is how they make their money."[12] The behavioral therapy has a lucrative annual price tag of $200,000 per student.[13]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) just offered a higher incentive for psychiatrists to electroshock their patients, increasing the charge per treatment from $385.58 to $660.30.[14] It is already a more than $3 billion-a-year industry.
The FDA has called for public comments on the proposed GED ban until May 28 before issuing a final ruling.[15]
About CCHR: CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the late Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor of Psychiatry. It has helped achieve many laws that protect patients from abuse in the mental health system.
Sources:
[1] www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/fda-moves-again-to-ban-controversial-shock-therapy-devices-used-by-rotenberg-center/article_5b3792d4-3dd0-5745-a92b-332edf69b33f.html
[2] www.bostonglobe.com/2023/01/30/opinion/will-shock-treatment-finally-be-banned/
[3] adapt.org/andre-mccollins-a-judge-rotenberg-torture-center-survivors-story/
[4] abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/story?id=11047334
[5] www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cchr-supports-uns-and-rights-groups-demand-for-urgent-fda-ban-on-skin-electric-shock-devices-300770689.html
[6] www.cchrint.org/2012/06/21/electroshocktorturekid/;
[7] www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/03/06/2020-04328/banned-devices-electrical-stimulation-devices-for-self-injurious-or-aggressive-behavior; http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/
[8] abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/story?id=11047334.; www.huffpost.com/entry/abuse-is-not-the-answer-shut-down-the-judge-rotenberg_b_585be5dde4b068764965bab3.
[9] www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/16/judge-rotenberg-center-massachusetts-electric-shocks
[10] www.cchrint.org/2023/06/23/consumers-unaware-that-brain-damaging-electroshock-devices-are-not-fda-approved/
[11] malegislature.gov/Bills/193/H180
[12] www.cchrint.org/2023/10/13/ma-bill-ban-electroshock-aversion-therapy-needed-nationwide/ citing www.wcvb.com/article/5-investigates-judge-rotenberg-center-shock-therapy/42526127; autisticadvocacy.org/stoptheshock/; www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/decades-long-fight-over-electric-shock-treatment-led-fda-ban-n1265546
[13] www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cchr-supports-uns-and-rights-groups-demand-for-urgent-fda-ban-on-skin-electric-shock-devices-300770689.html citing abcnews.go.com/Nightline/shock-therapy-massachussetts-school/story?id=11047334
[14] bhbusiness.com/2024/03/28/cms-proposed-2-7-rate-hike-for-inpatient-psychiatric-facilities-in-2025/
[15] www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/03/26/2024-06037/banned-devices-proposal-to-ban-electrical-stimulation-devices-for-self-injurious-or-aggressive
Source: Citizens Commission on Human Rights International
0 Comments
Latest on EntSun News
- Solution Tavern Opens Bringing Drinks, Sports, Trivia, and More to Local Neighborhood!
- Parler Unveils PlayTV: A New Playground for Content Creators!
- Arena Rock Tribute Will Rock Turning Stone - Final Show
- Indie Gospel Recording Artist Dianna Hobbs Signs with Halo Management and Releases New Single 'Don't Know Why'—OUT NOW
- Superior Thin Film Solar Panel Advancements Open Great Opportunities in the Rapidly Developing Aerospace and Related Sectors: Stock Symbol: ASTI
- Grand opening of the ResC4EU platform to support companies withstanding supply chain disruptions
- Vertical Horizon Celebrates 25 Years of "Everything You Want" at the Weinberg Center
- New Study Reveals Alarming Cardiac Risks Associated with Electroshock Treatment
- Columbus Fashion Council Announces Bruce & Glen Proctor as Headline Designer for Finale Runway Show
- "Live Courageously" With Host John Duffy will Have Guest Tom Ohmer an Actor From the Stage and TV
- The Ultimate Guide to Buying Historic Luxury Homes in Winter Park, FL Now Available
- And The Winner Is: Special Request Ft Rey T (AKA) Reynard Thomas
- Sky Lites Drone Shows with LASERs
- Don Barnhart Set to Bring the Laughter to Delirious Comedy Club In Downtown Las Vegas
- Junetini to Host 'Meet, Greet & Tasting' at the Ultimate Women's Expo 2024
- Allegiant Management Group Launches New Website Following Recent Rebranding
- Empowering Anthem "Out Loud" by Germono Toussaint Featuring Crystal Monee Hall Available Now
- Angelita Vineyard & Winery Welcomes Hideaway Circus for a Spectacular Debut in Corsicana
- Celebrating 30 Years: 2024 Diversity Visa Lottery Opens Oct. 2, Offering Life-Changing Opportunities for U.S. Immigration
- Quidax Launches $125,000 Crypto Innovation Pitch, Partners with Moonshot for TC Battlefield