CONCERNS have been raised about the use of ‘potentially very dangerous’ electroshock treatments on women and elderly people at hospitals around Oxfordshire.

A 2019 report found that Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust gave Electroconvulsive Treatment (ECT) to 65 people.

Of these, women represented 69 per cent, and were twice as likely to receive it as men, and 59 per cent of these patients were over 60.

ECT involves passing electric currents through a patient’s brain to cause seizures to treat severe depression.

The report showed that Oxford Health was the only trust across England to give the procedure to a child in both this audit and a previous 2011-2015 audit.

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The figures were revealed after psychologists campaigning for better regulation of the practice sent a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to all 56 NHS trusts in the country.

Co-author of the report Dr Chris Harrop commented: “I cannot imagine any local reasons why ECT would be used so disproportionately on older ladies in Oxford compared to the rest of the country, and even on an under 18-year old.

“It seems like a doctors’ whim rather than evidence-based medicine.”

In addition, lead researcher Dr John Read, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London, said that ECT was a ‘potentially very dangerous’ procedure which, if it is to be used at all, required the ‘most stringent' scrutiny.

Practitioners, however, say that the practice is a ‘safe and effective’ treatment for severe depression.

Dr Rupert McShane, who is lead consultant psychiatrist on ECT at Oxford Health and the chair of a committee on ECT at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said that most people who receive the procedure see an improvement in their condition.

He added that approximately 70 per cent of patients are 'much' or 'very much better' afterwards.

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Dr McShane commented further: “The trust’s use of ECT therapy is consistent with that of the rest of the country and is used only in cases where a patient is severely ill or other treatments have not worked.

“As with all treatments for serious medical conditions, there can be side-effects of differing severity.

“ECT is no exception.

“We take very careful measures to try to reduce this difference to zero. "

He went on: “People with depression who have ECT are less likely to die than those who do not.

“The close monitoring of potential side-effects is a routine part of practice and allows clinicians to adjust treatment accordingly.”

A group of clinicians, researchers and ECT recipients have also written to the Minister for Health and Social Care to ask for an independent review of the practice.

It is supported by multiple organisations like Mind and the Royal College of Nursing.