[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]As it happened with [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]psychosurgery[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica], electroconvulsive therapy was a highly troublesome therapy. First, there were many examples of ECT being used to subdue and to control patients in psychiatric hospitals. Troublesome patients received several shocks a day, many times without proper restraint or sedation. Medical Historian David J. Rothman affirmed in an [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]NIH Consensus Conference[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica] on ECT in 1985: [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]"ECT stands practically alone among the medical/surgical interventions in that misuse was not the goal of curing but of controlling the patients for the benefits of the hospital staff"[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]However, in the 70's, strong movements against institutionalized psychiatry began in Europe and particularly in the USA. Together with psychosurgery, ECT was denounced by libertarians, and the most famous libel was a 1962 novel written by Ken Casey, based on his experiences on an Oregon mental hospital. Titled "[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]", it was later made into a highly successful [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]movie[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica] by Czech director Milos Forman, starring [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Jack Nicholson[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]. Bad press turned into a series of legal actions involving the abuses of shock therapy.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]By the mid-1970s ECT had fallen into disrepute. Psychiatrists increasingly made use of powerful new drugs, such as thorazine and other antidepressives and antipsychotics.[/FONT]