page_title: Montreal experiments
section_title: Treatment
hierarchical_section_title: Montreal experiments / Treatment
caption_attribution_description: English: Electroconvulsive therapy machine on display at Glenside Museum
context_page_description: The Montreal experiments were a series of experiments, initially aimed to treat schizophrenia by changing memories and erasing the patients' thoughts using Donald Ewen Cameron's method of “psychic driving” as well as drug-induced sleep, intensive electroconvulsive therapy, sensory deprivation and Thorazine. The experiments were conducted at the Allan Memorial Institute of McGill University between 1957 and 1964 by the Scottish psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron and funded by the CIA as part of Project MKUltra, which lasted until 1973 and was only revealed to the public in 1975.
  The patients of this experiment, who were mainly diagnosed with depression or schizophrenia expected positive changes from Cameron's treatment. However, these patients suffered severely under conditions that are not in accordance with the human rights. Not only the patients but also their families show long lasting effects on their mental health. Some of these symptoms include retrograde amnesia as well as impairments in every day life abilities such as self-care.
context_section_description: With the goal of inducing lifelong changes in humans, Cameron used different methods of depatterning and repatterning the brain. The procedures included psychic driving, drug-induced sleep, intensive electroconvulsive therapy, sensory deprivation and the administration of neuroleptic Thorazine.
  Drug-Induced Sleep
  Cameron used doses of thorazine to put patients into an artificial coma.
  The drug-induced sleep, which took place in the “sleep room”, usually lasted from a few days up to 86 days; longer than expected by the patients. Cameron often combined the sleep periods with injections of hallucinogenic drugs (e.g. LSD), as well as administration of electroshocks and the playing of pre-recorded messages into patients' ears.
  Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
  Electroconvulsive Therapy (also called electroshock therapy) is a procedure used to treat psychological disorders like Treatment-resistant depression.
  Another way of depatterning the brain was intensive electroconvulsive therapy (electroshock therapy). Usually, 2 to 3 daily sessions were ordered, consisting of six 150-Volt shocks that lasted one second. After 30-40 daily sessions, Cameron progressively reduced the sessions and finished the treatment after a two-year follow up program with one session per month.
  Sensory Deprivation
  Inspired by Donald Hebb's experiment on sensory deprivation and human cognition, Cameron included these techniques in his treatment program. Patients were deprived of their senses by covering ears, eyes and/or skin. Furthermore, patients were given little food, water and oxygen, and instead injected with drugs (LSD, curare) to keep them in a paralyzed state.
  Psychic Driving
  In order to repattern the brain, patients had to listen to specific recordings of Cameron repeatedly. This process took place for up to 16 hours a day, and over the whole period messages could be repeated up to half a million times altogether. For the first ten days, recordings contained personal, negative messages, which were followed by ten days of positive messages.
  Anxiety that would emerge in patients was countered with heavy doses of sedating drugs such as Sodium Amytal and Largactil.
caption: Electroconvulsive Therapy
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