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Lisa Tarricone

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December 2, 2009

Author and Electroshock Survivor to Speak at Local Disability Rights Center

White Plains – Linda Andre, writer, activist and the director of the Committee for Truth in Psychiatry will discuss the history and controversy regarding electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) at Westchester Independent Living Center at 200 Hamilton Avenue in White Plains this December 15^th from 3 – 5 PM. Andre, a survivor of ECT who has been interviewed by numerous publications and media such as 20/20, the New York Times and the Washington Post, will talk about her new book, Doctors of Deception: What They Don’t Want You to Know About Shock Treatment, the first ever account of the psychiatric and shock survivor’s movements.

In April 2009 – 20 years after it first ruled Electroshock machines high-risk and named brain damage and memory loss as byproducts of the treatment – the FDA belatedly announced it would call on the manufacturers of the device to provide evidence of safety and efficacy. To date, the FDA has disregarded its own law, while millions of patients over the past generation have had running electricity administered through their brains without the scientific evidence to disprove adverse effects on memory and cognition. “We also know that shock is frequently forced on people who say no to it,” says Andre.

According to Andre’s book, the shock industry and organized psychiatry abused public trust and waged a masterful, multi-decade public relations campaign to improve ECT’s image, deceiving the media, the government and the public about its risks while exploiting the negative stereotypes of mental patients to silence survivors.

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