The 50-Year Medical Scandal: How Electroshock Continues Without Ever Being Tested for Safety

When “Treatment” and Torture Use the Same Device

As I told Tony Lyons on MAHA Action, we’ve entered the endgame for medical fraud—where even the most entrenched defenders can no longer pretend that electrocuting brains is medicine.

Join thousands of concerned Americans by taking immediate action to email Congress here.

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There’s a number that should stop every American cold: 450 volts, 900 milliamps. That’s what courses through the brain during what the medical establishment insists on calling “electroconvulsive therapy”—a semantic sleight of hand as deceptive as calling all vaccinations “immunizations” without actually conducting gold-standard, placebo-controlled trials proving they actually improve immunity safely and effectively, as claimed.

Apply just a quarter of that electrical force to the heart, and it kills. Apply it to the brain, and somehow it becomes “treatment.”

The same American manufacturers selling these devices to our hospitals for $2,500 per session also sell them to China. The only difference? China’s government is honest about their dual purpose both for psychiatry and torture - the only real difference being the latter is performed without and against the victim’s consent.

This is the low-hanging fruit of medical reform that RFK Jr., the MAHA movement, and the new health leadership have been waiting for. After five years of witnessing medical gaslighting on an unprecedented scale—from vaccines without placebo trials to treatments that repackage harm as healing—Americans finally understand what Dr. Berg and I discovered when we interviewed survivors: sometimes the damage IS the treatment. A sedative marketed for insomnia works because it impairs your nervous system. And electroshock? It “works” because brain damage temporarily disrupts the patterns of human suffering.

The Numbers That Damn an Industry

100,000+ Americans electroshocked annually. Children as young as five. 84% relapse rate. Zero FDA approval after 50 years. Half a billion dollar industry. 1,160 studies documenting harm—ignored. 68 outdated studies used to justify continuation.

These aren’t statistics. They’re an indictment.

Every week, veterans who served their country, elderly patients with dementia, adolescents in crisis, and yes, kindergarteners—undergo a procedure that has never passed the safety standards required of a contact lens. The FDA knows this. The manufacturers know this. They’ve known for half a century.

This isn’t a medical debate. This is a 50-year regulatory capture that continues destroying brains with the government’s blessing.

The Undeniable Facts About ECT’s Harms

1. ECT Devices Have Never Undergone Legally Required Safety Testing

When Congress gave the FDA authority over medical devices in 1976, ECT machines were grandfathered in as high-risk Class III devices—the same category as replacement heart valves and implanted defibrillators. The law required manufacturers to submit comprehensive safety and efficacy data.

They never did.

• In 1979, FDA ordered manufacturers to submit approval data by 1982. The manufacturers refused. The FDA did nothing.

• In 1995, FDA again demanded safety data by 1997. Again, manufacturers refused. Again, FDA took no action.

• During FDA hearings, one ECT device company president stated under oath: “We do not do research.”

2. The Government’s Own Watchdog Condemned This Failure

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) officially criticized the FDA in 2009 for allowing ECT devices to remain on the market for an “unacceptably long” time without proper safety review. The devices had been harming patients for 33 years at that point. Another 16 years have passed since then.

3. FDA Ignored 1,160 Studies Documenting Harm

When FDA finally reviewed ECT between 2009-2018, the agency:

• Relied on just 68 studies—some dating back to the 1950s

• Excluded more than 1,160 studies, including those documenting:

  • Permanent brain damage

  • Extensive memory destruction

  • Cognitive impairment

  • Deaths

  • Lack of long-term effectiveness

The FDA acknowledged these harms exist but concluded it hadn’t found “sufficient evidence to ban” the devices. Translation: We know it causes brain damage, but we’re allowing it anyway.

4. Industry Openly Admits: Safety Studies Are “Too Expensive”

Before a critical FDA hearing, NIMH psychiatrist Dr. Matthew Rudorfer publicly stated that proper clinical trials for ECT would be too expensive for manufacturers. A co-owner of Somatics, Inc. (a major ECT device manufacturer) echoed this, admitting the industry couldn’t afford necessary safety research.

This is the only high-risk brain device where manufacturers openly refuse to conduct safety trials—because they don’t want to pay for them—while collecting up to $2,500 per “treatment” in an industry worth half a billion dollars annually.

5. FDA Quietly Deleted “Brain Damage” from Official Documents

Earlier FDA documents explicitly listed “brain damage” among ECT’s documented harms. In the 2018 Final Rule, the agency removed this term without explanation, despite:

• Decades of neuropathology studies documenting brain tissue damage

• The manufacturer Somatics simultaneously warning about “permanent brain damage” in its own product disclosures

6. ECT Now Classified as “Low Risk”—Like Contact Lenses

In 2018, FDA downgraded ECT to Class II (moderate risk) for several conditions in adults and adolescents. This puts a device that induces grand mal seizures by sending 450 volts and 900 milliamps through the brain—enough electricity to kill if applied to the heart at just 1/4 to 1/9 the dose—in the same category as:

• Contact lenses

• Condoms

• Pregnancy tests

This reclassification occurred despite:

• 79% of public commenters opposing the downgrade

• 92 organizations submitting formal opposition

• No new safety data justifying the change

7. The Permanent Damage Is Documented and Devastating

Memory Destruction:

• Up to 55% of patients experience permanent memory loss

• Patients lose years of personal history—weddings, births, education

• Professional knowledge and skills permanently erased

Treatment Failure:

• 84% require ongoing “maintenance ECT” (repeated brain shocks)

• 60% continue taking multiple psychiatric drugs afterward

• No long-term placebo-controlled trial has ever shown sustained benefit

Cognitive Devastation:

• IQ drops

• Inability to form new memories

• Loss of professional capacity

• Destroyed relationships from personality changes

8. International Human Rights Bodies Call It Torture

The UN Committee Against Torture has stated that forced ECT constitutes torture under the Convention Against Torture. Yet in 33 U.S. jurisdictions, patients can be subjected to ECT against their will.

9. Veterans Are Increasingly Targeted

• Department of Defense spent $70+ million on ECT from 2010-2019

• ECT use among veterans increased 46% from 2018-2023

• Cost: $22.8 million in just five years

• No veteran-specific safety studies exist

These are men and women who served their country, now subjected to an unproven brain-damaging procedure that manufacturers refuse to properly test.

10. The Cover-Up Continues Through Coordinated Suppression

Those who speak out about ECT harms face:

• Professional retaliation

• Character assassination campaigns

• Deplatforming from social media

• Being labeled “anti-science” despite citing FDA’s own documents

• Inclusion on industry-funded “disinformation” lists alongside health advocates later proven correct

The same industry that refuses to conduct safety studies spends millions silencing survivors and advocates who document the damage. They call us the “Disinformation Dozen” when we cite their own admissions. They censor medical professionals who dare mention that the emperor has no clothes. But truth has a peculiar quality—it remains true whether platforms allow it or not.

The Undeniable Truth

After 80 years of use:

• Zero FDA-approved ECT devices exist

• Zero modern long-term safety studies have been conducted

• Zero placebo-controlled trials demonstrate sustained effectiveness

• Thousands of patients have documented permanent brain damage

• Millions of memories have been permanently erased

This isn’t about being “anti-psychiatry” or “anti-science.” This is about enforcing existing law, protecting vulnerable patients, and demanding the same safety standards for ECT that we require for every other high-risk medical device.

What Must Happen Now

The solution isn’t controversial—it’s what the law already requires:

1. Enforce the 1976 Medical Device Amendments: Require manufacturers to submit Premarket Approval applications with comprehensive safety data or remove devices from the market.

2. Mandate Modern Clinical Trials: No more grandfathering. No more excuses about expense. Either prove safety and efficacy through rigorous trials or stop the treatment.

3. Restore Accurate Warnings: “Brain damage” must be restored to FDA labeling unless manufacturers can prove otherwise through proper studies.

4. End Forced ECT: Establish federal protections preventing involuntary electroshock.

5. Investigate the 50-Year Cover-Up: Congressional hearings on why FDA has failed to enforce its own regulations for half a century.

The Time for Action Is Now

Every day this continues, more patients suffer permanent brain damage. More memories are erased. More lives are destroyed. And it all happens with the FDA’s blessing, despite the agency knowing manufacturers refuse to conduct required safety studies.

This ends when enough people demand accountability. When patients, families, healthcare providers, and legislators unite to say: No more brain damage without proof of safety. No more exemptions. No more excuses.

The coalition forming now represents something unprecedented: survivors, scientists, health freedom advocates, and the politically diverse MAHA movement all recognizing that some barbarisms transcend partisan divides. We’re not asking for the impossible. We’re demanding enforcement of laws already on the books. We’re insisting that devices used for torture in authoritarian regimes not be used on American children without safety data.

With new leadership at HHS committed to gold-standard science, with a public that has learned to question medical gaslighting, with advocates who’ve been vindicated after years of censorship—this is our moment.

Join the movement to end this 50-year medical scandal.

Take action at www.StopECT.com

Contact your representatives. Share the truth. Demand enforcement of existing law.

The manufacturers admitted under oath they “do not do research.” The FDA admitted it knows about the brain damage. The GAO admitted this has gone on “unacceptably long.” The same devices are sold for torture abroad.

How much longer will we let this continue?

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The Final Word: No More Silence, No More Shocks

ECT is not “treatment.” It is the state-sponsored destruction of the human mind — made legal through deception and inertia.

We must end it.
For the veterans who trusted their doctors.
For the mothers who lost decades of memory.
For the children who should never have known what a “shock treatment” feels like.

This is our moment to turn outrage into action. The conscience of a nation is watching.

Learn more, join the coalition, and take action at StopECT.com.

Download the StopECT Media Toolkit here

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Global Wellness Forum
In alliance with the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), Stand for Health Freedom, and allied informed consent and medical freedom groups nationwide.

Every fact in this article is documented in FDA records, congressional testimony, peer-reviewed studies, and manufacturers’ own admissions. This isn’t ideology. This is the documented reality of a medical procedure that continues to destroy brains and lives while regulators protect profits over people. View the Medical and Legal findings for references.

The harm is real. The cover-up is documented. The time for action is now.

www.StopECT.com