Electroschocking autistic kids trend?

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The Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR) has launched an investigation into the link between prenatal antidepressant use potentially causing autism and the current psychiatric push to electroshock autistic children. In 2016, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that 15 percent of women in their reproductive years take antidepressants, raising concerns about the possibility of birth defects, including, medical experts say, autism. CCHR cites several studies published in The British Medical Journal, Autism Research, Pediatrics and other journals that have reported a potential association between in utero exposure of babies to antidepressants and an increased risk of autism. As some experts argue that brain damage in the womb could also be a root of autism, CCHR says the use of brain-damaging electroshock treatment on autistic children should be banned.

The group warned that the combined adverse effects of antidepressants and electroshock are "CCHR is also concerned about the broad description of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that appears in the APA's Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM5) published in 2013. CCHR recognizes that parents want the very best for their child, but they warn parents that the DSM offers no clinical test to substantiate an ASD diagnosis. It also points to Allen Frances, MD, a professor of psychiatry and the architect of DSM-IV who lamented that because of DSM, the "massive mislabeling" of children during the past 20 years, has led to rates of autism multiplying an incredible 40 times.[6] Such increases put children at risk today of being subjected to electroshock — a lucrative market for psychiatrists to bill insurance, according to CCHR. jeopardy" for the child — a considerable danger or trouble from two sources. It is calling on mothers who took antidepressants during pregnancy and gave birth to an infant later diagnosed with autism to contact it. It also wants to hear from mothers whose children, including those diagnosed with autism, have been recommended for or have undergone electroshock treatment — the passage of about 360 volts of electricity through the brain, further damaging it.

Researchers writing in Autism Research pointed out that the percentage of women using SSRI antidepressants during pregnancy increased from an estimated 1.2 percent in 1995 to 6.2 percent in 2005. The prevalence of autism increased from 1 in 500 children to about 1 in 160 children during that same time period. Statistics from the CDC placed the 2005 prevalence rate even higher, at perhaps one in 120. In short, as SSRI use increased five-fold over a 10 year period, autism increased 3 to 4-fold. In 2013, autism disorders were estimated to affect one in 88 children.

The Autism Key, an online information and support network, states that electroshock (electroconvulsive therapy or ECT) is being used on autistic children who self-harm and warned about more "widespread autism applications," noting the lack of evidence that electroshock is safe for children.

Yet through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed with all U.S. states, CCHR established that in 14 states that responded, ECT is being used on children and adolescents and in five states, this included those aged 0-5 years old. It is unknown how many may have been born to mothers taking a prescription psychotropic drug, such as an antidepressant.

Eighty years after electroshock was invented — stemming from electroshocking pigs in a Rome slaughterhouse — psychiatrists admit they still don't know how ECT "works." Numerous theories have been proposed, none of which have found mainstream scientific acceptance. Among the many psychiatric theories is that ECT "caused a good kind of brain damage," according to a 2016 Psychiatric News article. Meanwhile, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has been pressuring the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to give psychiatrists a wider berth to administer electroshock — despite its damaging risks, including memory loss — to children. Find out more about ECT

CCHR is also concerned about the broad description of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that appears in the APA's Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM5) published in 2013. CCHR recognizes that parents want the very best for their child, but they warn parents that the DSM offers no clinical test to substantiate an ASD diagnosis. It also points to Allen Frances, MD, a professor of psychiatry and the architect of DSM-IV who lamented that because of DSM, the "massive mislabeling" of children during the past 20 years, has led to rates of autism multiplying an incredible 40 times. Such increases put children at risk today of being subjected to electroshock — a lucrative market for psychiatrists to bill insurance, according to CCHR.