More children undergo shock therapy For the first time in four decades, children and adolescents are being used as subjects of significant new shock therapy studies. The studies are being done quietly at respected schools and hospitals such as UCLA, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Michigan. Shock therapy's use is on the rise, especially among the elderly. Children and other high-risk patients are receiving more shock as well, mostly as a treatment for severe depression.
Children still account for a small percentage of shock patients, and no national estimates exist.
But at a seminar for shock therapy doctors in May, one-third of psychiatrists raised their hands when asked if they did shock on young people. You're shocking a brain that is still developing. California and Texas ban shock therapy on kids under 12. Most states permit it with approval of two psychiatrists and a parent or guardian. Shock researchers met in Providence, R.I., in the fall of 1994 to discuss early results of the new studies, mostly unpublished.