Shock Treatments

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Redhead
You Live, You Learn

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Jennifer

Shock Treatments

I am surious what others feel about this...
(Newsday Article)
New battle over shock
Regents may keep NY students from school using controversial treatment

BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER AND JOHN HILDEBRAND
STAFF WRITERS

March 21, 2006

The state's highest education-policy board is considering a proposal to stop sending New York school children to out-of-state facilities that use electric shock to treat psychological disorders.

A staff report to the Board of Regents yesterday targets the Judge Rotenberg Center a week after a Freeport mother who opposes the therapy announced she would sue her local school district for sending her son to the Massachusetts school. Experts say no other school in the nation uses mild electric shock to modify students' behavior.

Of the 151 New York state students at Rotenberg - including those from New York City schools and more than 20 Long Island districts - 77 are now receiving the controversial "aversion therapy." The report expresses concern that the therapy is not only used on students who are most "cognitively impaired" or severely "self-destructive," but also for those who are "higher functioning," with emotional disabilities, attention-deficit disorders and problems such as truancy and aggression.

"To some degree, it brings back memories of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,'" said Roger Tilles, Long Island's representative on the Board of Regents, referring to the 1962 novel about abuses of shock therapy in a mental hospital.

Parents of students at Rotenberg said they will do anything to show the board that the treatment has saved their children's lives.

"I'd go to Albany if I have to," said Arthur Perazzo, of Howard Beach, father of a 20-year-old autistic man.

Agreed Marcia Shear of Roslyn Heights, mother of a 13-year-old autistic girl: "I'll fight it with every ounce in my body. If you don't know this type of child you have no right to make any kind of judgment on treatment."

Although its methods often ignite controversy, Rotenberg, which has about 200 children and about 50 adults, is licensed by the Massachusetts education and mental retardation departments. The aversion-therapy device - the Graduated Electronic Decelerator - is approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a neurological therapeutic device. Students wear it as a backpack, and electrodes are placed on their arms, torso and legs. A transmitter controlled by staff emits a shock that lasts no longer than two seconds.

While the American Psychiatric Association has no policy regarding the use of mild shock for behavior modification, individual experts say they are surprised at the methods in place at Rotenberg. Edward Carr, a Stony Brook University psychology professor who specializes in autism and mental retardation, called the therapy "primitive."

Another psychologist, Bryant Welch of Hilton Head, S.C., agreed. "This is not a procedure that is widely recognized in the mental health field," said Welch, who also is an attorney who advocates on behalf of the mentally ill. "If we're just talking about a form of behavioral control that just turns life into trauma for these kids, then I think it raises profound ethical questions."

The pending lawsuit, filed by Evelyn Nicholson of Freeport, claims that the school's aversion therapy amounts to corporal punishment, which is illegal in New York State. Freeport and other districts declined to comment.

Matthew Israel, founder and director of Rotenberg, said the school uses the therapy only in the most severe cases, as with a girl who scratched out her retinas. In the case of Nicholson's son, Antwone, 17, Rotenberg used the therapy because the teenager cursed, threw things and attacked staff.

Israel emphasized that the school turns to aversion therapy only after it has exhausted other options such as rewards for positive behaviors.

He said he was "very concerned" about the proposal before the Regents: "I wasn't expecting this."

Experts said Rotenberg's form of aversion therapy has not been validated by published scientific papers that have been peer-reviewed, which is the widely accepted standard in the research community. Rotenberg's director of quality control, Ralph Antonelli, noted that scientists have published papers about similar treatments, including electric shock delivered through helmets worn by children who are prone to banging their heads.

The Rotenberg Center in Canton, Mass., about 20 miles south of Boston, is not the only school dealing with behavioral disorders, but it is alone in its use of electric shock. Harry W. Parad, executive director of Boston-based Wediko Children's Services, said his program is anchored in staff-led discussions that occur not only when children act out, but when they behave well.

"If you just change the behavior in the moment and you don't change how the child understands the behavior, then the likelihood the child will hold on to that change is not high," Parad said.

The GED device was developed and patented by Israel, who earned a doctorate in psychology from Harvard University. Israel doesn't market the device outside Rotenberg, he said, because he wants to ensure it's used properly.

"Because this treatment is so controversial, we've had a number of problems with our licensing agencies over the years," Israel said.

In 1985, the Massachusetts agency then known as the Office of Children tried to close the school because officials objected to the therapy. Rotenberg agreed to get court approval before students underwent the treatment. In 1993, the Department of Mental Retardation also tried to close Rotenberg because its commissioner opposed the therapy, but a court sided with the school.

Highs, lows of aversion therapy

Shock not the only form of habit-changing treatment

Aversion therapy techniques have a long history in the fields of psychiatry and psychology:

Unpleasant-tasting chemicals have been placed on fingernails to discourage nail-biting.

Substances, such as emetine, have been given to alcoholics to induce vomiting when alcohol is consumed.

Mild shock has been used to treat those trying to beat drug or nicotine addictions.

Aversion therapy was once associated with attempts to eliminate homosexuality. Therapy involved vomit- and paralysis-inducing substances and mild electric shock. In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of medical disorders.

Posted 3/21/06 3:10 PM