Prominent researcher Harold Sackeim of Columbia University is the nation's top electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) researcher who for the past 25 years have told patients that the controversial treatment doesn't cause permanent amnesia and, in fact, improves memory and increases intelligence.

Now (in lieu of current developments), in an article to appear in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology in January 2007, Sackeim reveals that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) causes permanent amnesia and permanent deficits in cognitive abilities, which affect individuals' ability to function: a reversal of what he has preached for the past 25 years.

Well, talk about a change of heart, so to speak.

"[T]his study provides the first evidence in a large, prospective sample that adverse cognitive effects can persist for an extended period, and that they characterize routine treatment with ECT in community settings."

Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), also known as electric shock is a treatment for depression that uses electricity to induce a seizure.

Read the full report. Link to the article can be found here (a pdf file).

Photo Credit: [www.antipsychiatry.org]