“ECT remains the most effective treatment for severe depressive disorder.“

UK ECT Review Group

It’s now been in use for over 80 years but electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), more widely known as shock therapy, is still dividing medical experts, campaigners and patients.

The treatment involves delivering pulses of electricity directly to the brain to induce a seizure thought to change brain chemistry.

Is it, as the Royal College of Psychiatrists describe, the most effective treatment for drug-resistant depression and other severe depressive disorders? Or is it in fact a cause of brain damage?

Investigative journalist Lynn Butler has a personal interest in pursuing answers to these questions. Her mother, Doris Wakelin, underwent shock therapy in a former Victorian asylum in the UK in 1950. It was time in her life she rarely discussed.

After reading an article in the Guardian – and discovering the treatment was still being performed on the NHS and that little research has been carried out into its effectiveness or side-effects – Lynn Butler embarked on an investigation into ECT.

By examining the public perception and stigma surrounding its use, speaking with former patients and medical staff, and looking at the little-publicised data on its effectiveness, she gets beneath the skin of the much-maligned treatment. This one-off podcast documentary is the result of her investigations.

Featuring interviews with former ECT nurse Shirley Ingram, recently retired psychiatric nurse Graham Young, former senior staff and ECT nurse Carolyne Haynes, former ECT patient and campaigner Sue Cunliffe and former ECT patient Karen Peckover.

Content warning: This podcast contains accounts of electroconvulsive therapy and self-harm which some listeners may find upsetting.