Madam, – The College of Psychiatry of Ireland has concerns regarding some of the reports that have been recently published concerning ECT and the effect these may have on patients, current and previous, who benefit from this treatment or who may require treatment in the future.
The college has committed to participating in all-party briefing with members of the Dáil on ECT which would allow both sides of the debate to be fully aired and to also correct for the public record inaccuracies and misrepresentations that have been expressed.
Some mental illness requires treatment against the person’s wishes, including prescribed ECT, and this human right to be given effective treatment is ethically founded, and bounded by law and regulation. All doctors are properly ethically required to protect and uphold this right to treatment. The college has argued and made constructive proposals as to how this regulation can and should be strengthened, but prohibition of ECT would remove a treatment that research shows as conferring benefit in 80 per cent or more of people who receive it.
We ask for restrained and balanced presentation of the evidence. It should be remembered, because of stigma, many remain silent on its benefits, and it is their right to effective treatment that we seek to protect, a right all campaigners should be mindful of defending while seeking to strengthen the regulation. The alternative is to deny treatment for some of the most severely mentally ill, and we cannot ethically support this. – Yours, etc,