The Secret World of American ECT

     Nobody knows much about ECT delivery in America, or if they know, they aren’t saying. 
 
     The FDA refuses to rule on ECT, saying it is the “practice of medicine,” over which they claim to have no authority. Nonetheless, they did manage to approve the use of the ECT devices themselves through some administrative sleight of hand back in 1976 by grandfathering their use in to earlier devices that had not been tested for safety or efficiency.

     Only nine states have legislation requiring any reports on ECT delivery, and only four of those collect much useful or complete data at all. Only some make the data they do collect a matter of public record, so that information remains secret.

     Consequently, only little tidbits of collected information have filtered through. Texas notes that ECT delivery increased by 67 percent from 2001-2013. Massachusetts reports that Mclean Hospital in Boston alone delivers more than 10,000 ECT sessions a year. Back in 200 they were only delivering about 2500 sessions per year. The Zucker Hospital in New York delivers now 7000 ECT session per year. Vermont has one of the highest per capita delivery rates for ECT in the nation.

     The estimate of total patients who receive ECT in America annually has been speculated to be 100,000, but that number remains an opinion, not an actual fact. The truth is, no one really knows. But why not? European countries have a strictly mandated requirement for ECT reporting, and delivery rates there are quite transparent.

     Maybe it’s so secret here because ECT is a far bigger, far more lucrative business in America. Delivery statistics like those from Mclean and Zucker suggest that far more than 100,000 people receive ECT every year in America, but even if that number is correct, ECT is unbelievably profitable. Each session is billed at an average of $2000. The normal number of sessions required is between 6 and 12, but more than half of all ECT patients keep returning for continuing or “maintenance” sessions.

     Calculating from only the 100, 000 ECT patients per year in America and counting only those who undergo the initial average of, let’s say, eight sessions, that equals one and a half billion dollars in revenue every year.

     The delivery device itself costs only a few thousand dollars. The procedure takes only twenty minutes or so. There’s usually only one psychiatrist, one anesthesiologist, and at least one nurse to pay. It’s a pretty low overhead business.

     That kind of profit is a pretty good reason to keep this all hush-hush. Today there is new data from more and more studies that show the temporary and permanent memory loss, cognitive decline, and increased cardiac risks that come from ECT.

     So it’s far better to keep the outrageous profit psychiatrists receive from damaging people with 400 volts of electricity a secret…a very well kept secret.