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Scientology is on the brink of killing an entire medical industry (www.thedailybeast.com)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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By systematically targeting electroconvulsive therapy as part of its war on psychiatry, experts say Scientology could decimate a treatment that is “saving so many lives.”

…

The Atlantic’s 2001 article explained that ECT [Electroconvulsive therapy] had emerged from a terrifying past to become a safe and effective treatment for some of the worst effects of serious mental illnesses. But Scientology, through its campaigns and by pushing legislation, was promoting outdated myths about the procedure for a public that knew little about it.

Miscavige's November 3 speech illustrated that Scientology is still pushing this agenda more than 20 years later—but with one big difference.

While Scientology has continued to campaign against ECT on various fronts, it has pursued a little known but very effective strategy against ECT's most vulnerable spot: Namely, the two small companies that manufacture the devices that physicians use during the procedure.

For decades, Scientology has quietly waged a litigation war against those two companies, SigmaStim and Somatics, and it has both nearly on the ropes.

Scientology knows that if the two companies go out of business, federal regulations mandate that doctors will no longer be able to use their devices, and ECT will become unavailable in this country and around the world.

Those medical providers say that ECT is a safe procedure that is saving lives every day, and they are extremely concerned that it is nearly on the brink of disappearing—and only because of the relentless attacks of Scientology on the device manufacturers, a war that has flown completely under the radar until now.

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[-] MagicShel@programming.dev 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Not sure what to think about this. I hate Scientology, but I'm pretty iffy on ECT. My grandma had those treatments for years and it seemed to treat her anxiety by destroying her memory. I looked it up and treating anxiety with it is "controversial."

That doesn't make me an expert in it and maybe there are folks it does wonderful things for, but at least in her case they probably should've just loaded her up with Xanax. Not that that is a wonderful option either, but that was really all she wanted and I think she put up with the ECT to try to convince them she needed it.

So Scientology can get bent but I'll allow for the possibility that maybe the stopped clock could be right here. Or maybe you folks have all seen it work much better than I have.

Edit: I should make clear - science should be challenged by researchers, not Scientologists. That's how science works - withstand falsification. If this causes any non-idiots to look at the data and reaffirm the treatment, I'm for that. As stated, Scientology itself can get fucked and die in a fire.

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[-] sir_pronoun@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

4chan to the rescue!

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this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024

426 points (98.4% liked)

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