Ireland has banned the use of electroshock treatment on minors under its Mental Health Law enacted in May, according to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), a mental health industry watchdog. This safeguards those younger than 18 from electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which delivers up to 460 volts of electricity through the brain, potentially causing severe memory loss and cognitive damage. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared ECT devices for those 13 and older for limited conditions, but the practice is often administered off-label—a situation CCHR wants to stop.
CCHR helped obtain the first law banning ECT on minors under 12 in California in 1976, and later in Texas for those under 16 in 1993. In Western Australia, it secured a ban for those aged 14 and younger in 2014, with criminal penalties for violators. Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International, praised Ireland's officials for raising the protected age to 17, but emphasized that like thousands who called for a U.S. ban under the FDA's 2018 Final Rule, the prohibition should extend to all ages. "CCHR is committed to achieving this," she said.
The Human Rights Institute in Ireland reported that the Mental Health Act represents one of the country's significant advances in human rights, reconsidering the relationship between health, human dignity, and state responsibilities. The Irish Mental Health Commission noted that the most significant right affected is the right to liberty and personal security. The newly formed Stop ECT Coalition in the U.S., comprising health and human rights organizations representing hundreds of thousands, is urging a review of how ECT devices remain on the market. ECT devices were "grandfathered" into FDA regulation in 1976 as Class III high-risk devices, bypassing modern standards requiring Premarket Approval with clinical trials. In 2018, the FDA reduced the classification to moderate risk (Class II) without safety and efficacy trials. The Coalition emphasizes that this incorrect classification allowed ECT use on children as young as five, pregnant women, seniors, veterans, and others, and that involuntary application—still occurring in some U.S. facilities—has been condemned by the United Nations and World Health Organization as a human-rights abuse.
Dr. John Read, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London, who has extensively reviewed ECT studies, noted that early proponents argued ECT works by reducing intelligence or erasing traumatic memories, akin to "brain-damaging therapeutics." He and colleagues published a review of over a hundred studies showing that ECT's effects on the brain closely resemble traumatic brain injury. Robert Rubinstein, a former psychiatry professor at the University of California in San Francisco, compared ECT to "kicking a Swiss watch," and psychiatrist Dr. Niall McLaren stated unequivocally that no psychiatrist needs to use ECT.
A World Health Organization mental health strategy plan warned of ECT's health risks, including brain damage, cardiovascular complications, memory impairment, and death, and stated that ECT should be banned for children and that non-consenting use may constitute torture. Jan Eastgate concluded that Ireland's ban marks a significant step forward in protecting vulnerable young people from a damaging procedure, while advocates continue to call for a complete ban. CCHR, established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry Dr. Thomas Szasz, has helped obtain hundreds of laws worldwide that increase informed consent rights and prohibit deep sleep treatment, a combination of ECT and a psychotropic drug-induced coma.
For more information, see the CCHR article on electroshock and the coalition's call for FDA review.
