In a desperate attempt to treat a crippling mental illness, Gerard Helliar submitted to hundreds of bouts of electroconvulsive therapy.

Now a Victorian coroner has called for the guidelines around electroconvulsive therapy to be reviewed, after ruling that the Melbourne grandfather died a preventable death.

There was no evidence that the involuntary electroconvulsive therapy Mr Helliar endured could have provided him with any relief, coroner Peter White found, and the therapy had therefore become largely experimental in nature.

Mr White said the treatment instead imposed further pain, discomfort, stress and a sense of hopelessness.

Gerard Helliar’s life support was turned off after he attempted suicide in the hospital’s acute inpatient mental health unit in November 2012.