2008 Woodie Awards
Addressing a 'shocking' issue
Controversial shock therapy helps Kitty Dukakis cope with depression
Kate Augusto and Matt Collette
Issue date: 10/15/07 Section: News
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Dukakis, who recently co-wrote a book, "Shock: the Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy," said she has suffered from mental illness and depression since 1982, which led her to develop drug and alcohol problems. According to the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, ECT is a treatment in which the brain is stimulated by a small amount of electrical current, which produces a seizure that affects the centers of the brain that control mood, appetite and sleep.
"I was a very different human being [before the treatment] than the one you see today," Dukakis said, while accompanied by husband Michael Dukakis, a distinguished political science professor and former three-time Massachusetts governor, and co-author Larry Tye.
While the Dukakises are confident in the benefits of ECT, other ECT patients think it's terrible.
"I wouldn't argue with anyone else who already was subjected to it, but I would go to the ends of the earth to prevent someone else from getting it," said Dorothy Dundas, a woman in her mid-60s who underwent many ECT treatments at the age of 19.
Dundas is part of MindFreedom International, a non-profit organization that works to show alternatives for people labeled with psychiatric disabilities, according to its website. Members of MindFreedom are upset that Kitty's book does little to show the negative aspects of ECT, despite efforts to get some of the aspects included.
"What we got was one or two sentences [in the book]," said David Oaks, director of MindFreedom International. "There are a string of celebrities that feel they were helped by shock therapy and they come out and sing its praises, but the public is not hearing the other book. The book that should be written ought to tell the nightmare scenario [of ECT]."
While Dundas described her ECT experience as a nightmare that led to memory lapses, Kitty said her depression before the treatment was the real nightmare.
"It's hard to describe what happens when someone who you love dearly ... for reasons that nobody can explain … would experience such severe depression," Michael said. "These depressions were brutal ... every nine or 10 months she would start feeling crummy."
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
David W. Oaks
David W. Oaks
posted 10/18/07 @ 12:58 PM EST
Dear Editor,
I'd like to appreciate the work by Kate Augusto and Matt Collette on this article. I've been a human rights activist for 31 years in the field of mental health, and it's nice to see both sides of the story on this controversial and complex topic explored and covered. (Continued…)
Cheri Montagu
posted 10/31/08 @ 3:08 AM EST
Did anyone from Mind Freedom think to ask Dukakis if one of the two "small companies" manufacturing ECT devices was Mecta? And if so, how Harold Sackeim found the funding to do his study? You guys say that there is already sufficient research to indicate that ECT is bad-- I have this directly from Leonard Frank-- but against the personal experience of people like Dukakis, isn't it imperative to see that studies of the adverse effects of unilateral ECT in particular are done to prove that it is damaging too? You aren't going to ban ECT-- even involuntary ECT, which is all it is strategically wise to aim for-- by simply wishing it away!
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