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Shock researchers met in Providence, R.I., in the fall of 1994 to discuss early results of the new studies, mostly unpublished. We do a lot of education. We show them a video and the ECT suite. They're so desperate that they'll give it a try. Today's researchers interpret Bender's study as evidence that shock works, at least temporarily.