CCHR Helps Secure Europe’s Rejection of Forced Psychiatry

Posted on February 16, 2026 by cchrstl

Landmark Vote Affirms Coercive Practices Violate Human Rights

In a landmark unanimous decision, a key body of the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading organization that sets human rights standards, rejected a proposed psychiatric measure that, if approved, would have expanded and legitimized involuntary psychiatric detention and forced treatment across Europe. This could have had global repercussions had it not been stopped.   

This historic outcome followed years of sustained work by CCHR International, working closely with its European chapters, on a coordinated campaign to expose the dangers of the proposal. That campaign reached a critical point last year when it appeared that an amendment to increase coercive psychiatric practices would be approved. This was despite widespread opposition from United Nations human rights and anti-torture bodies, as well as disability and advocacy organizations.

CCHR International helped create reports explaining how forced psychiatric practices violate basic rights and cause long-term harm, which were shared with lawmakers and raised awareness of the proposed amendment. 
The Council of Europe rejection sends a powerful message: coercive psychiatric practices are incompatible with human rights; involuntary detention and forced treatment are not “necessary” or protective. As the rejection conveyed, coercion must not be normalized and can never be used to justify deprivation of liberty or bodily autonomy. The committee is now working on a plan to end coercive practices.   

A similar stand is urgently needed in the United States, where there are psychiatric efforts to expand coercive psychiatric policies. 

With your continued support, CCHR International can keep advancing our campaign to protect human rights and dignity in the mental health field, by abolishing coercive psychiatric practices. 

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Thank you for helping CCHR remain the leading force defending human rights against the mental health industry.

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Massachusetts Fails to Advance Bill Banning Electric Shocking Device Used on Students

Posted on February 9, 2026 by cchrstl

The bill would have prohibited all procedures that cause physical pain or deprivations meant to force behavioral change – so-called “aversive therapy” – to persons with disabilities, which includes students at a school for autistic and disabled students. 

by  CCHR National Affairs Office

A Massachusetts bill that would have banned an electric shocking device used to control behavior at a residential school near Boston for autistic and disabled students failed to advance out of committee before a legislative deadline, effectively killing the bill in the current legislative session.  Similar bills have been introduced, but allowed to die in the state legislature for more than a decade.

Massachusetts House bill  245, sponsored by State Representative Danielle Gregoire, called for prohibiting any procedure that causes “obvious signs of physical pain” or denies “a humane existence” – so-called “aversive therapy” – to persons with disabilities in the state.

The bill would have effectively banned the electric shocking device used for behavioral conditioning at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC), the only school in the nation to employ such a device.  JRC staff use the device to deliver electric shocks remotely to electrodes attached to the students’ arms, legs, or other parts of their bodies to force changes in their behavior.

A horrifying  video  of the procedure shows a JRC student strapped to a restraint table while being shocked, screaming, “Stop! Stop!” and “That hurts!”  The 18-year-old was shocked 31 times over seven hours for failing to obey an order and was hospitalized for more than a month following the incident,  according  to a lawsuit brought by his mother against JRC.  The case was settled out of court.

The harm from the devices is detailed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which for a second time is proposing to ban the device.

“These devices present a number of psychological risks including depression, anxiety, worsening of underlying symptoms, development of post-traumatic stress disorder, and physical risks such as pain, burns, and tissue damage,” the FDA wrote in its proposed regulatory rule. 

The FDA previously banned the device, but JRC prevailed in a lawsuit that found the FDA did not have the proper legal authority to do so.  In 2023, Congress amended federal law to give the FDA that authority, and in 2024, the FDA again began the process that is expected to result in a final rule in May that bans the device as used by JRC.

In 2013, the U.N. Special Rapporteur investigated the use of electric shock and restraints on JRC students and  determined  their rights “have been violated under the UN Convention against Torture and other international standards.”

The Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has actively advocated for years for an end to the practice, which it calls a human rights abuse.

Nancy R. Weiss, retired professor and co-founder of the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities at the University of Delaware, points out that JRC students are electric shocked, but “you can’t use electric shock on prisoners, prisoners of war, or terrorists.”

Language to prohibit use of the device is currently part of a more comprehensive bill, Massachusetts Senate bill 1394, which was recently reported favorably by the Senate committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery and referred to the committee on Health Care Financing. 

If the bill is passed with the language banning the device remaining intact, or the FDA finalizes a rule prohibiting the device, the long and disgraceful history of harm from the device will finally come to an end.

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New Study Raises Major Concerns About Questionnaire Widely Used for Depression Screening

Posted on January 19, 2026 by cchrstl

A new study calls into question the validity of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), a foremost depression screening tool, and cautions researchers and mental health providers about relying on PHQ results.

by  CCHR National Affairs Office

A new research report suggests that a widely used depression screening questionnaire should not be relied on for research purposes or in assessments for depression.

A team of academic researchers investigated the validity of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ), whose various versions are among the most widely used tools in research and clinical settings worldwide for assessing depression in patients.  The researchers’ particular concern was whether responses to PHQ questions reflected how often potential symptoms of depression were experienced, or how much those symptoms bothered the individuals.  The PHQ instructions ask for how often the symptoms bother the person.

The study’s findings,  reported  in  JAMA Psychiatry, indicated that fewer than one in five responded to the PHQ according to the instructions (i.e., how much the symptoms bothered them).  Instead, their answers more often reflected the frequency, not severity of symptoms.  The scoring resulting from those responses likely indicated more severe depression than was actually the case.

“Results of this study suggest that the PHQ is widely misinterpreted, raising concerns about its validity for research and clinical decision-making,” the report  says.

Conditions the PHQ asks about – such as having “little interest or pleasure in doing things,” “feeling down,” “feeling tired or having little energy,” and “poor appetite or overeating” – may be felt by many people in the normal course of living.  

Questions about such conditions, along with the misinterpretation of the PHQ instructions, likely result in the overdiagnosis of depression, as well as the overprescribing of antidepressants and other psychiatric treatment.  It should be noted that the PHQ was developed in the mid-1990s with funding from Pfizer, an antidepressants manufacturer, which still holds the copyright for the questionnaire.

An  analysis  of data from the most recent National Health Interview Survey indicates a steady increase in antidepressant use from 2019 to 2023.  Overall, antidepressant use increased from one in 10 Americans (9.8%) in 2019 to one in nine (11.4%) in 2023.  The use of the PHQ by doctors to screen for depression during routine primary care, as now recommended by the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF), may well have contributed to that increase.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in England and the United Kingdom National Screening Committee do not recommend routine screening of adults for depression.  Neither does The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, after  concluding  that research studies provide only “very low-certainty evidence” to support the practice.

In contrast, the USPSTF recommends the screening, based on what it claims is a “moderate certainty that screening for depression has a moderate net benefit.”  Even so, it advised health care providers to consider individual patient circumstances, such as an absence of any sign that the individual is depressed, before deciding whether to screen.  

Overly assessing depression can have a ripple effect, leading to inflated reports of a mental health crisis in the U.S. and fueling calls for increased funding for mental health programs.  

A recent Gallup  poll  asked respondents, “Has a doctor or nurse ever told you that you have depression?”  Since doctors and nurses may tell patients they have depression based on questionable results from the PHQ, those patients’ replies when polled only reflect what they’ve been told, but do not reliably represent an actual rate of depression.

Beyond adults, research has also indicated that screening teens for depression  does not  reduce suicidal behavior, undermining the primary rationale for screening them, but may lead to overdiagnosing and overtreatment with antidepressants.

Antidepressants carry known risks of dangerous side effects.  Psychiatrist Peter Breggin, M.D., describes antidepressants as neurotoxic, saying they harm and disrupt the functions of the brain and can cause abnormal thinking and behaviors that include anxiety, irritability, hostility, aggressiveness, loss of judgment, impulsivity, and mania, which can lead to violence and suicide.

The newly released documentary from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, “Prescription for Violence: Psychiatry’s Deadly Side Effects,” is an exposé of the link between psychiatric drugs and violence, as well as the corruption and greed of the psychiatric industry fueling this crisis.  The documentary can be viewed online  here.

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for personal medical advice given by a physician or other competent healthcare provider.

Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant or other psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications.

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HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF 0-5 YEAR OLDS DRUGGED UNDER MEDICAID

Posted on January 5, 2026 by cchrstl

This past year, CCHR International (CCHR Int) once again filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to nearly all 50 states to ascertain how many underprivileged children and foster children were prescribed psychiatric drugs under Medicaid (state and federal funding for underprivileged children). 

From the 32 states that responded, the documents showed 2,999,084 0-17-year-olds were being prescribed these drugs at a total cost of $1.7 billion (including 270,196 aged 0-5). Aside from the documented and severe side effects of these psychiatric drugs, many of the drugs being prescribed are not even approved for young children, particularly the 0-5 age group. Yet nearly 300,000 0-5 year olds are being prescribed these drugs under Medicaid. 

Under Medicaid funding of this widespread drugging, parents and caregivers are not being provided with the documented FDA side effects of these drugs (provided in the FDA Medication Guides). 

CCHR Int began providing healthcare agencies and state policymakers with the data obtained from their respective states, along with the FDA-documented risks of these drugs. 105 legislators from the 32 states responded requesting more information to create policies to investigate and curb this over-drugging of underprivileged and foster children under Medicaid.

STATE LEGISLATION NOW ADDRESSING PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGGING OF CHILDREN 

Based on CCHR Int’s data packs, four states have now introduced legislation to combat the mass psychotropic drugging of Medicaid children. This will provide true informed consent for parents or legal guardians so they are fully aware of the risks of psychiatric drugs and enact penalties for practitioners who don’t comply. 

SOME PRESCRIBERS ARE DRUGGING MORE THAN 1000 CHILDREN PER YEAR  

CCHR Int staff filed additional FOIAs with each state to get the names of these prescribers that are drugging children under Medicaid along with the number of children they are prescribing drugs. Through these FOIA’s we have found top prescribers who are drugging outrageous numbers of children.

For example, in one state, we have uncovered providers who are drugging between 900 and 1,600 individual children in a single year—equivalent to roughly 20 to 32 children every week receiving addictive, Schedule II controlled substances (ADHD drugs).

Over six years of Medicaid prescriber data for one state obtained by CCHR Int showed that the top 20 prescribers of psychiatric drugs to children remained relatively unchanged, consistently drugging children at rates between 130 and 230 times higher than the average prescriber in the state. This suggests a systemic failure of controls on stimulant distribution and monitoring within Medicaid.

We have filed detailed complaints on these providers with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, state medical boards and the Office of Inspector General. And these prescribers are now being investigated.

CCHR International has been on the forefront of exposing the dangers of psychiatric drugs, especially on children, for decades and a growing number of medical professionals, legislators, opinion leaders and influencers are now speaking out about it and taking action.

?But there is much more to do, and we need your help. None of these investigations or FOIAs (which cost funds to obtain) could have happened without your support. 

Together, we can keep exposing these criminals who are wreaking havoc on society and putting lives at risk.

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Data Reveals Forced Electroshock in Connecticut More Than Doubled over the Past Decade

Posted on December 29, 2025 by cchrstl

Connecticut stands as an example of the growing problem of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) performed on patients without their consent, allowed under many states’ laws despite the procedure’s known risks of serious side effects and no proof of effectiveness.

by  CCHR National Affairs Office

Data obtained from the state of Connecticut reveals a more than doubling over the past decade in the number of requests from psychiatric facilities for court orders allowing the forced administration of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT, or “electroshock”) to patients who did not consent to it.  The procedure is performed by psychiatrists on patients experiencing depression or other mental health conditions despite the significant risk of permanent memory loss and other complications.

Statistics from the Connecticut Office of the Probate Court Administrator show the number of petitions for involuntary electroshock received by probate courts statewide grew from 81 in 2015 to 193 in 2024, with a record high 199 in 2022.  This year is on track to exceed that record, with 174 petitions filed through August.  The figures were obtained through an information request by Jim Flannery, a former biomedical equipment technician, and are posted on his  website.

These numbers represent individuals forced against their will to undergo a psychiatric procedure in which up to 460 volts of electricity is shot through their brains to cause convulsions.  Psychiatrists still cannot explain how electroconvulsive therapy (ECT, or “electroshock”) is supposed to work to alleviate depression or other mental health conditions, how much voltage it will take, or how many sessions of the procedure to administer.  It is a matter of trial and error with human lives.

ECT is known to cause cognitive impairment, permanent memory loss, prolonged or persistent seizures, worsening psychiatric symptoms, heart attacks and other cardiovascular complications, and death.  A 2023  study  concluded that patients who had received ECT were at a 44 times greater risk of suicide than patients who were not electroshocked.

Whether electroshock is even effective has never been proven.  A 2019 comprehensive  analysis  of studies on ECT found that the quality of the prior research was so poor that nothing could be concluded about any effectiveness of the procedure. 

This year, the largest-ever international  survey  of people who had received electroshock found that most recipients reported little or no benefit from their ECT treatment and, in many cases, reported it made their lives worse.  A large majority reported memory loss, with most of them saying it had lasted at least three years.  According to the researchers conducting the survey, “memory loss three years later is probably permanent.”

Psychiatrists performing electroshock can greatly increase their income.  It has been estimated that a psychiatrist spending just a few hours a week to do 20 ECT procedures can bring in an additional $300,000 per year.

International mental health standards now oppose all coercive mental health practices, including forced electroshock.  In 2023, the World Health Organization and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights  advised  that “international human rights standards clarify that ECT without consent violates the right to physical and mental integrity and may constitute torture and ill-treatment.”  The organizations called for an outright ban on ECT for children.

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) continues to call for legislation to ban all electroshock.  CCHR’s documentary, Therapy or Torture: The Truth About Electroshock, which can be viewed online, warns consumers about the serious risks of ECT.  To date, more than 140,000 people have signed CCHR’s petition to ban electroshock.

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for personal medical advice given by a physician or other healthcare provider.

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NEW CCHR DOCUMENTARY EXPOSES DEADLY LINK BETWEEN PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS AND VIOLENCE

Posted on December 15, 2025 by cchrstl

CCHR has released its new documentary, Prescription for Violence: Psychiatry’s Deadly Side Effects, which highlights extensive evidence correlating the escalation of mass shootings, suicides, and violent crime with the pervasive use of psychiatric drugs. 

Prescription for Violence presents harrowing interviews with victims and families, alongside compelling commentary from investigators, attorneys, psychologists and psychiatrists who have linked psychiatric drugs to some of the nation’s most horrific tragedies.

In a society where one in four Americans is currently taking psychiatric drugs—many without fully understanding the potentially lethal side effects—this groundbreaking documentary uncovers a crisis of national and global proportions. Among the side effects listed by drug manufacturers are mania, hostility, aggression, homicidal ideation and suicide attempts. 

For many years the documented correlation between psychiatric drug use and violent behavior has been largely ignored.

For decades CCHR has been at the forefront of exposing the link between psychiatric drugs and violence, which is finally being recognized as a global issue requiring a full investigation. 

Watch the full documentary by clicking this link, Prescription for Violence: Psychiatry’s Deadly Side Effects.

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FDA Expert Panelists Voice Concerns over Safety of SSRI Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy

Posted on December 8, 2025 by cchrstl

Potential risks for expectant mothers and their babies from SSRI antidepressants should be more fully disclosed in prescribing information and in discussions between physicians and their pregnant patients, experts say, allowing for more informed decisions about starting or stopping the drugs during pregnancy.

by  CCHR National Affairs Office

A 10-member FDA expert panel, headed by FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, MD, MPH, met in July to  voice concerns  over research in recent years linking the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) antidepressants during pregnancy to potentially serious side effects for mothers and their newborns.  Panelists called for higher quality research on this potential connection, and stronger warning labels on SSRI antidepressants in the meantime, so physicians and pregnant patients can make more informed decisions about use of the drugs.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Makary said it is estimated that one in four (25%) middle-aged women and up to one in 20 (5%) of women in pregnancy are on an antidepressant.  He noted more generally that “we’re losing the broader battle of addressing mental health in the United States,” and “in some respects, we are going backwards.” 

“From a national standpoint, the more antidepressants we prescribe, the more depression there is,” he observed.  His solution: “We have to start talking about root causes.”

Data from recent surveys support this overview of antidepressants.  The use of antidepressants among adults in the U.S. has  increased steadily  from 9.8% in 2019 to 11.4% in 2023, according to data from the latest National Health Interview Survey, administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Concurrently, the rate of American adults who reported feeling depressed or receiving treatment for depression jumped by nearly 50%, from 12.5% in 2019 to 18.3% in 2025, a recent Gallup  poll  revealed.  The most recent rate amounts to an estimated 47.8 million adults in the U.S. feeling depressed.

During the panel’s discussion, members offered a range of opinions on the issue, with most arguing against SSRI use in pregnancy because of potential negative outcomes for mothers and their babies.

Dr. Makary referred to research studies implicating the role of SSRIs in postpartum hemorrhage, pulmonary hypertension and cognitive downstream effects in the baby, as well as cardiac birth defects.

Adam Urato, MD, chief of maternal and fetal medicine at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, expressed concern that SSRI labeling “does not make clear that SSRIs alter fetal brain development.” 

“Many, many studies show an impact on the developing brain,” he explains. “We can see it on prenatal ultrasound.  The ultrasound studies show SSRI-exposed fetuses have different movement and behavior patterns.  After birth, the newborn babies can have jitteriness, breathing difficulties, and higher rates of admission to neonatal intensive care unit.”

“What are we waiting for before we warn the public?” he asks.  “Never before in human history have we chemically altered developing babies like this, especially the developing fetal brain.  And this is happening without any real public warning.”

Psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist David Healy, MD, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and CEO of Data Based Medicine in North Wales, pointed to  his research, which suggests a link between SSRI use in pregnancy and autism and other developmental delays in infancy, leading to cognitive difficulties in childhood.  He explains that SSRIs’ core action is to mute sensory input, which can be a feature of autism.

Anick Berard, PhD, professor of perinatal epidemiology at the University of Montreal, spoke about the higher risk of miscarriage, congenital (especially cardiac) malformations, premature births and low birth weight, ADHD, or autism following SSRI use by expectant mothers.

Psychiatrist Jay Gingrich, MD, PhD, director of the Institute for Developmental Sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City, pegged the estimated rate of American women using an antidepressant during pregnancy at 8% to 10%, which equates to 320,000 to 400,000 live births annually that have been exposed to the drugs in utero.  He spoke about the results of  his research, published earlier this year, which indicated that adolescents exposed to SSRIs as fetuses exhibited higher anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescence than adolescents who were not exposed.

Joanna Moncrieff, MD, a psychiatrist and professor of critical and social psychiatry at the University College London, said  her research  found that claims of SSRI antidepressant effectiveness are not supported by scientific evidence, which raises the question of whether antidepressants should be prescribed at all.  She theorizes that the emotional numbing caused by SSRIs “might reduce the intensity of people’s depressive symptoms or anxiety temporarily,” but that’s very different from taking a drug because you believe it is correcting some underlying brain abnormality.

Dr. Moncrieff states unequivocally that “antidepressants do not correct a chemical imbalance or any other underlying biological abnormality.”  As for effectiveness, they “do not work – are barely distinguishable from a placebo in clinical trials.” 

Further, “they disrupt normal brain chemistry causing a variety of harmful effects,” including sexual dysfunction (which can be persistent), miscarriage, premature delivery, postpartum hemorrhage, fetal malformations, and newborns experiencing withdrawal symptoms or persistent pulmonary hypertension.

She says that “advice and research on these drugs is hugely skewed by the pharmaceutical industry marketing and the professional interest to defend antidepressants.”

Kay Roussos-Ross, MD, a psychiatrist and director of the Perinatal Mood Disorders Program at the University of Florida College of Medicine, believes that the risk of these serious negative outcomes is low, except for the withdrawal symptoms – such as jitteriness, irritability, and respiratory distress – experienced by 25% to 30% of babies exposed to SSRIs late in pregnancy, and that the potential harm of untreated depression in mothers should be balanced against the potential risks of harm to their babies from SSRI use.

However, antidepressants are not the only treatment available for depressed patients during pregnancy.  Many of the panelists urged greater use of evidence-based alternative treatment options, which avoid potential risks to mothers and babies from the drugs altogether.

Panelists agreed that more research needs to be done on SSRI use during pregnancy, but that potential adverse effects indicated in existing research need to be more fully disclosed and alternative treatments considered in discussions between physicians or other health providers and their pregnant patients, prior to recommending or prescribing SSRI antidepressants.

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for personal medical advice given by a physician or other healthcare provider.

Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant or other psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications.

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Canada Advises Against Routine Screening of Adults for Depression in Primary Care Settings

Posted on December 1, 2025 by cchrstl

The Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care agrees with other investigative bodies which have concluded that using a questionnaire to screen adults for depression has no clear benefit for patients’ health.

by  CCHR National Affairs Office 

A new guideline issued by the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care recommends against using questionnaires in primary care settings for routine depression screening of adults because of the “very low-certainty evidence” supporting the practice.  The Task Force was established by the Public Health Agency of Canada to develop guidelines to assist primary care providers in delivering preventive health care.

In determining whether adults with no symptoms of depression should be routinely screened for depression by means of questionnaires administered during primary care visits, the Canadian Task Force commissioned a systematic review of recent medical literature on benefits and harms of the practice. 

In screening questionnaires, number values are assigned to the responses to the questions, which result in an overall score that determines whether the individual is considered “screen positive” and then referred for further evaluation and potential treatment.

A clear benefit from routine depression screening of adults could not be established by the Task Force, which  concluded  that evidence from the reviewed research studies “provided very uncertain results or showed little to no difference” between those screened and those who were not.  No studies were identified that reported on the potential harms of screening, including false-positive results, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment, which can wrongly lead to the prescribing of antidepressants and the waste of medical resources.

The Task Force’s conclusion: “We recommend against screening all adults aged 18 years and older for depression using questionnaires (strong recommendation, very low-certainty evidence), based on evidence suggesting that depression screening using a screening tool [questionnaire] has little to no effect on health.”  The recommendation was published in the Canadian Medical Association journal, the  CMAJ.

Such “strong recommendations” are issued by the Task Force “when the undesirable effects outweigh the desirable effects.” The current recommendation applies to adults with no depressive symptoms – even those considered to be at an elevated risk of depression. 

The Canadian guidance is consistent with the recommendations of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in England and the United Kingdom National Screening Committee, which do not recommend routine screening of adults for depression. 

While the Canadian Task Force is advising against the screening because research studies indicated “very low-certainty evidence” to support it, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) looked at the research and decided in 2023 to  recommend  screening, based on what it claimed is a “moderate certainty that screening for depression has a moderate net benefit.”  Even so, it advised health care providers to consider individual patient circumstances, such as an absence of any sign that the individual is depressed, before deciding whether to screen. 

Stephanie Collier, MD, MPH, director of education in geriatric psychiatry at McLean Hospital and an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, disagrees with the USPSTF decision.

“Primary care clinicians routinely screen their patients for depression based on the USPSTF guidelines. However, screening patients is resource-intensive and should be reconsidered. The benefits of screening for depression still have not been proven, whereas the harms of screening are known,” she  wrote  on the Insights website of Harvard Medical School.

Research raising doubts about the validity of depression screening questionnaires includes a 2023  study, reported in the British medical journal  BMJ, which found that a widely used screening questionnaire, the so-called PHQ-9, identifies 2.5 times as many cases of major depression as a clinical interview does. 

STAT, an online health and medicine news outlet, conducted its own investigation in 2023 and  concluded  that “data suggesting that PHQ-9 has actually improved outcomes [for patients] is ambiguous at best.”

“STAT’s investigation shows how this simple tool has become a crutch – used in place of, rather than as a gateway to, thoughtful mental health care,” it reported.

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for personal medical advice given by a physician or other healthcare provider.

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New Research Raises Serious Questions about Electroshock as Treatment for Depression

Posted on November 17, 2025 by cchrstl

Survey responses showing little or no benefit for most electroshock recipients, along with long-term memory loss for many, led researchers to call for a suspension of the procedure until large-scale, high-quality research can determine whether benefits outweigh the risks.

by  CCHR National Affairs Office

Two new research studies have dealt a devastating blow to the psychiatric procedure of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT, or “electroshock”), with the largest-ever international survey of ECT recipients and their families reporting that most received little or no benefit from the treatment and, in many cases, reporting it worsened their lives.  A large majority of the responding ECT recipients reported memory losses, with most of them saying the problem lasted three years or more. 

ECT is a controversial psychiatric procedure that may be performed on depressed patients.  It involves shooting up to 460 volts of electricity through brain tissue to produce a grand mal seizure, the most serious type of seizure – the kind usually caused by epilepsy.

After 85 years of performing electroshock, psychiatrists still cannot explain how this procedure is supposed to work to treat depression, how much voltage to use, and how often and how many sessions of ECT to administer.  It is trial and error with human lives.

While psychiatrists administering ECT assert it is effective, especially for patients with severe depression, there is not adequate research to support that claim, according to a 2019  study  led by researcher John Read, Ph.D., professor of clinical psychology at the University of East London, and Irving Kirsch, Ph.D., Associate Director at the Program in Placebo Studies at Harvard Medical School.  They found there were only 11 placebo-controlled studies of ECT used to treat depression, and those studies were small, flawed, and at least 40 years old.

To address the inadequacy of this low-quality, outdated research while awaiting any new trials that meet today’s research standards, Dr. Read and colleagues evaluated data collected from 1,144 individuals – 858 ECT recipients and 286 family and friends – from 44 countries, who responded to an online survey about their experience with the procedure.  A series of research papers are planned, based on the data collected. 

The first  study  in the series, published recently in the  International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, assessed whether ECT works.  Of the 964 survey respondents who reported on their most recent course of ECT treatment, 17% had received one to five ECT sessions, 35% between six and 10 sessions, 31% between 11 and 20 sessions, and 17% more than 20 sessions.  For nearly one-third (31%) of respondents, this was their first course of treatment, for another 31% their second to fifth course of treatment, and the remainder had six or more.

The survey used five measures of the effectiveness of ECT: whether it was helpful for the specific condition for which ECT was given, was generally helpful, reduced suicidality, improved mood, or improved quality of life. 

The striking results of the survey should demand the attention of physicians and mental health providers who are recommending ECT and referring patients to psychiatrists who perform it. 

A majority (55%-71%) of the respondents said electroshock had no benefit or a negative effect on each of the five measures of effectiveness.  It is especially noteworthy that nearly half (49%) reported that ECT made their quality of life “much worse” (22%) or “very much worse” (27%).  Less than half of respondents reported that ECT provided some benefit on the survey’s five measures.

“Our findings, from the largest survey ever conducted, indicate that claims that ECT is effective are, at best, unproven and, at worst, misleading,” Read  said.

A second study by the same researchers, using data from the same survey, assessed memory problems resulting from ECT.  The  study  was published recently in  Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry.

Concerning memory loss, Read writes that “it is generally agreed that most patients experience some degree of memory problems” from ECT.  He adds that “there is, however, no consensus on the severity or duration of these deficits,” though “it is usually suggested that they are mild and last only days or weeks.”    

Contrary to that belief, a large majority of ECT recipients responding to the survey reported suffering from long-term memory problems after electroshock.

On the four measures of memory loss used in the survey, 61% to 84% of ECT recipients reported experiencing this adverse effect.  Nearly three out of four (71%) ECT recipients reported they are less able to remember new information (so-called anterograde amnesia).  Four out of five (80%) reported they lost memories of events that occurred before receiving electroshock (retrograde amnesia).

For a large majority of the ECT recipients with memory loss (65% of those with anterograde amnesia and 81% with retrograde amnesia), their memory problems had lasted more than three years. 

“While some memory loss returns after days or weeks, memory loss 3 years later is probably permanent,” Read wrote.

In a further finding, the measures of memory deficit were correlated with the number of ECT sessions, indicating a causal relationship.  “The more ECT treatments, the more damage,” Read  wrote.

A third  study  of the survey data found that most (59%) survey recipients were not given adequate information about the risks of ECT.  Only 17% recalled being told that ECT can cause long-term or permanent memory problems; 12% that ECT can cause heart problems; and 28% that there are risks from repeated use of general anesthesia for ECT procedures.

In light of their findings from the survey, Read and colleagues called for a halt to electroshock until high-quality research can show whether benefits outweigh the risks.

“In conjunction with the absence of evidence that ECT is more effective than placebo, and the known long-term adverse effects on memory, these survey findings lead us to recommend a suspension of ECT in clinical settings pending independent large-scale placebo-controlled studies to determine whether ECT has any effectiveness relative to placebo, against which the many serious adverse effects can be weighed,” Read  wrote.

Nobody knows how many Americans get electroshocked each year.  A widely used, but outdated estimate of 100,000 appears to come from a 1995 study. 

Psychiatrists performing electroshock can greatly increase their income.  It has been estimated that a psychiatrist spending just a few hours a week to do 20 ECT procedures can bring in an additional $300,000 per year. 

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) advocates a total ban on ECT and continues to raise public awareness about the harm it can cause.  CCHR’s documentary,  Therapy or Torture: The Truth About Electroshock, which can be  viewed online, warns consumers about the serious risks of ECT. 

To date, more than 139,000 people have signed the CCHR  online petition  to ban ECT.

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for personal medical advice given by a licensed physician.  

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Nearly Half of Preschoolers Diagnosed with ADHD Are Prescribed Drugs Before Changes in Managing Their Behavior Are Tried

Posted on November 3, 2025 by cchrstl

Prescribing drugs for preschoolers soon after diagnosis of ADHD conflicts with American Academy of Pediatrics guideline for nondrug approaches first. Research has indicated the ADHD label itself and the stimulant drugs that may be prescribed as treatment can be harmful to children, while evidence of benefit is uncertain.

by  CCHR National Affairs Office

Nearly half of preschool-age children who are diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in primary care settings are prescribed drugs as treatment before changes in managing their behavior are attempted, a new study finds.  This is at odds with the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline that nondrug behavioral interventions, such as parent training in behavior management, should be tried first when children 4-5 years old are diagnosed with ADHD because of their overactive or impulsive behavior.

Observing that ADHD is being increasingly diagnosed in children who have not yet entered school, the study investigated the rates of ADHD drug prescriptions and the period of time between diagnosis and the prescribing of drugs to preschoolers by primary care physicians. 

An examination of the medical records of over 700,000 U.S. children 4-5 years old revealed that 1.4% of the young children received a diagnosis of ADHD.  (Notably, African American children accounted for 31% of the preschoolers diagnosed with ADHD, roughly twice their proportion in the general population.  This is an apparent continuation of the disproportionate diagnosing of African Americans with disruptive, defiant and psychotic mental disorders as a result of the systemic racism that the American Psychiatric and American Psychological Associations have admitted is ingrained in their practices.)

Of the preschool-age children diagnosed with ADHD, 42% were prescribed an ADHD drug within 30 days of their diagnosis, indicating that nondrug interventions were not attempted or were not tried for very long.  The study’s researchers note that this finding conflicts with the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline to first try behavioral interventions because of the stronger evidence of their effectiveness than drugs for preschoolers.  The researchers called for further investigation into why there are such high rates of drug treatment and low rates of nondrug treatment for these young children.

For three-quarters (78%) of the children on ADHD drugs, the first drug prescribed was a stimulant, such as Ritalin, Adderall, or Concerta.  Harmful side effects of stimulant-type ADHD drugs include headache, decreased appetite, weight loss, difficulty sleeping, anxiety, depression, upset stomach, nausea, abnormal behavior, increased blood pressure, and increased heart rate, with the risk of heart disease increasing the longer the drugs are taken.  Stimulant drugs also carry the potential for dependency and addiction, according to a drug safety warning issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Beyond the risk of side effects, a recent analysis of evidence on ADHD diagnosis and treatment concluded that the diagnosis itself, as well as the stimulant drugs that may be prescribed as treatment, carry the risk of harmful consequences for children, while evidence of benefit is uncertain.  The study’s researchers called for a greater focus on appropriate care and support of children with behavioral issues, rather than on diagnosing ADHD. 

Even more fundamentally, ADHD is a psychiatric label subjectively applied to a collection of behaviors common to children.  The “diagnosis” has no scientific validity, making it a label that is far too easy to pin on children.  With roughly one in nine American children labeled with ADHD, researchers in a 2021 study found convincing evidence that ADHD is overdiagnosed in children.

This view was also held by the late psychologist Keith Conners, who conducted the first formal trials on the stimulant-type ADHD drug methylphenidate.  He later realized that ADHD diagnoses were out of control, calling ADHD misdiagnoses “an epidemic of tragic proportions.”

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) took concerns about the rampant diagnosing and drugging of children for ADHD to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, which responded with hearings and a recommendation in 2015 for the establishment of a system for “monitoring of the excessive use of psychostimulants for children.”  The U.N. Committee also said that governments should “take the necessary measure to prevent any pressure on children and parents to accept treatment with psychostimulant drugs.”

Many undiagnosed physical conditions – infections, injuries, illnesses, allergies, nutritional deficiencies, reactions to drugs – as well as problems with schoolwork, can result in children’s behavioral problems that may be misdiagnosed and wrongly treated as ADHD, missing the opportunity to address and handle the real underlying cause.

As physician Mary Ann Block, author of No More ADHD, says: “By taking a thorough history and giving these children a complete physical exam as well as doing lab tests and allergy testing, I have consistently found that these children do not have ADHD, but instead have allergies, dietary problems, nutritional deficiencies, thyroid problems and learning difficulties that are causing their symptoms.  All of these medical and educational problems can be treated, allowing the child to be successful, without being drugged.”

The content on this site is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for personal medical advice given by a licensed physician. Anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an ADHD drug or any other psychiatric drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a physician because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms or other complications. 

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