Group Calls for Ending Electroshock and Greater Disclosure of Psychiatric Drug Risks Linked to Violence.
(1888PressRelease) May 22, 2026 - Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) Tennessee was on the ground joining CCHR International outside the American Psychiatric Association's annual convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on May 16, urging adoption of policies to eliminate coercive mental health interventions-including electroshock treatment and psychotropic drugs linked to violent side effects.
CCHR expressed particular concern over recent psychiatric associations supporting the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) on children, including without consent. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has classified non-consensual electroshock as a form of torture,¹ and the World Health Organization has stated there are no medical indications for its use in minors and that it should be prohibited.
CCHR has long advocated for such protections, helping secure the first ban on ECT for children in California in 1976, followed by prohibitions in Texas in 1993 and Western Australia in 2014, where violations can result in jail time.
A new CCHR report examines 145 cases of senseless violence linked to individuals taking or withdrawing from psychiatric drugs, resulting in 720 deaths and 1,602 injuries. While not all individuals experience such effects, the report documents that a subset may-including a 10-year-old California boy on an antidepressant who stabbed his 12-year-old friend to death in 2012, and a 6-year-old Virginia boy on ADHD drugs who shot and wounded his teacher in 2023.²
Despite $139.6 billion invested in mental health and substance use services in 2021-a 241% increase since 2000-outcomes remain exceedingly poor, according to a recent Congressional roundtable.
Jan Eastgate, President of CCHR International, stated: "The American psychiatric system has failed spectacularly. After decades of mass drugging and electroshocking vulnerable individuals, and prescribing drugs with the potential of triggering violence, we face billions wasted on worsening mental health outcomes. It's time to end the abuse and coercion."
CCHR is a nonprofit mental health watchdog organization dedicated to exposing and correcting human rights violations in the field of mental health. Founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and professor of psychiatry Thomas Szasz, CCHR has helped secure hundreds of laws protecting patient rights.
¹ "Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez," General Assembly, Human Rights Council, 1 Feb. 2013
² "I'm the mother of a 10-year-old murderer…" Daily Mail, 20 Oct. 2013; "Mother of 6-year-old who shot Virginia teacher says son has ADHD," ABC 30 Action News, 10 May 2023
Group Calls for Ending Electroshock and Greater Disclosure of Psychiatric Drug Risks Linked to Violence. 
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