Case Types -Psychiatric Malpractice Drugs & Electroshock Claims

Psychiatric Mental Health Care Treatment Lawsuits

Sometimes mental health treatment can be abusive or negligent. Negligence can come from a mental heath or rehab treatment facility. In this case you need a lawyer to fight against there large amount of resources. You cant fight that battle alone.You must have facts with your suspicion of guilt.

Though it is rare. Psychiatric professionals are very sensitive and caring in the treatment of mental health problems. But on rare occasion supervision may be scarce and regulations may become relaxed. A person may get permanent mental health damage from negligent Mental health care.

Depression, Bi-polar and many other psychiatric drugs are very powerful. It can be possible that the wrong medication was prescribed by a psychiatric doctor from negligence. Misdiagnosis and wrong psychiatric drugs are prescribed with irreversible effects. This is a serious error. Electroshock treatments may be given incorrectly or state guides not followed. If this is the case and you suspect negligent mental health care contact our law offices as soon as possible we will advise you of your legal options.

Below is testimony on problems with electroshock therapy:

If cases like below have happened to you or someone you know contact our law firm today.

Testimony to New York Assembly Hearing on Electroshock
July 18, 2001

John Breeding, Ph.D.
2503 Douglas St.
Austin, Texas 78741
(512) 326-8326
www.wildestcolts.com

My name is John Breeding. I am a psychologist from Austin, Texas. I testified in New York at the hearing in May on forced electroshock, and I am grateful to Assemblyman Luster for his enlightened leadership and determination to investigate electroshock practice in New York State. I am also grateful to Assemblyman Ortiz for his resolve and leadership in proposing electroshock legislation, and to all the other committee members for their concern about this issue.

Electroshock is practiced throughout the United States. Texas, where I come from, has perhaps the strongest controls of any state, including a reporting law, an emphatic demand for informed consent for ECT, and a ban on the treatment for children under 16. New York is unique, however, in that key research institutes, such as those at Columbia University and the New York Psychiatric Institute are located here, as are the electroshock industry leaders who work at those institutions. So the Assembly's acknowledgment of the need for investigation and consideration of legislative oversight and control of psychiatric electroshock practice is especially important.

As a psychologist, I have worked with a number of victims of electroshock. I have been on the advisory board of the World Association of Electroshock Survivors, an organization consisting of individuals who have undergone electroshock and who are now working to ban this procedure. I implore you to understand the significance of this group and others like it, such as the Committee for Truth in Psychiatry, based in New York City and the larger Support Coalition International. Electroshock Survivors from these groups are actively organizing to outlaw a "treatment" which their doctors declared was necessary and would help them, even‹in some cases--to the point of forcing it on them against their will! As I said in my earlier testimony, if thousands of the patients receiving a standard medical procedure for a physical illness had organized themselves to ban that procedure, there would surely be a serious reevaluation of the procedure and probably a complete moratorium until a proper investigation was completed.

Electroshock and Informed Consent
Today, per Assemblyman Luster's request, I will focus on informed consent.

A recent article of mine, called, "Electroshock and Informed Consent," is attached to this testimony. The article cites research that substantiates all of its points, including the following:

Electroshock causes death. Psychiatry often says 1 in 10,000. The truth is a much higher death rate; some studies show 1 in 200.

Electroshock always causes brain damage. The question is only how much.

Electroshock always causes memory loss. The question is only how much.

Electroshock does not prevent suicide.

Electroshock has no beneficial effects. (The supposed short-term benefits are in reality the immediate sign of brain damage.)

Electroshock often results in cardiovascular complications or epilepsy.

Electroshock poses extra risks for the elderly, who bear the brunt of the treatments, including higher mortality rates.

Genuine informed consent must include the seven facts cited above, and a good deal more. Regrettably, even the appearance of informed consent does not guarantee its reality. Let me briefly describe four of the many ways in which psychiatry systematically violates informed consent.

Read more at:

http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/Depression/