A FORMER novice nun who was committed to a psychiatric hospital is at loggerheads with top shrinks over a treatment for depression.

Grandmother Mary Maddock, 70, says of Electro-Convulsive Therapy, which she was given against her will: “Ruined my life and wiped out huge chunks of my memory for decades.”

3 Former novice nun Mary Maddock says Electro-Convulsive Therapy wiped out chunks of her memory

The Cork woman, who runs the MindFreedom support group for “survivors of psychiatric abuse”, is calling for the therapy to be banned.

During ECT, electrodes are put onto the head and an electric current is passed briefly to the brain, causing a seizure.

It is used to treat mental disorders such as depression — and under the current law in Ireland it can be administered in cases where a patient lacking in mental capacity has refused ­treatment.

However, forced ECT could be banned under the Mental Health Act (Amendment) Bill which is going through the Seanad.

But TCD’s Professor of Psychiatry, Brendan Kelly, told the Irish Sun that the treatment “can save lives”.

3 A display of the administration of Electro-Convulsive Therapy Credit: Alamy

Prof Kelly explained: “Would anyone deny cardiac surgery to a person with intellectual disability simply because they lack the capacity to decide?”

Psychiatrists here are legally bound to respect an Advanced Care Directive refusing ECT, but this legal safeguard can only be put in place by a person who has undergone a medical test to prove they are of sound mind.

But as a former mental patient, Mary claims she cannot make an advance directive. She explained: “I have a label and this label is permanent because I was once ­committed to psychiatric care. They labelled me mentally ill. They gave me these problems.

“Anybody can get a label. A doctor can say you are bipolar. And once you’re given a label, your rights are taken away from you. You’ve less rights than a criminal has.”

3 Mary, right, runs MindFreedom

She added: “It is torture. It’s brain damage. It’s skulduggery.”

Last year, the High Court granted the HSE the power to order ECT for a 16-year-old girl ­suffering from suicidal thoughts and anorexia because all other medication, support and psychotherapy had not succeeded. Her parents had not given consent.

But Prof Kelly says there are strict laws to ensure a person “committed” to psychiatric care will only receive ECT under strict ­conditions.

Citing extreme cases, he said: “I have seen ECT save lives in this situation. And, like many psychiatrists,

I would opt immediately for ECT if I was severely depressed.”

In Mary’s case, ECT was used on her when she was sent to a psychiatric institute at the age of 26.

She had just given birth to her first child and believes that the bout of psychosis she suffered during labour was caused by a reaction to nitrous oxide.

“They put two electrodes on your temples. They jolt your brain. I didn’t feel it because they gave me an anaesthetic, and the treatment completely blotted out my memory." Mary Maddock

She recalled: “It was as if I was drunk. I was saying things out of character and I was very giddy. Over a period of six weeks I received 13 different electric shocks.

“They put two electrodes on your temples. They jolt your brain. I didn’t feel it because they gave me an anaesthetic, and the treatment completely blotted out my memory.

“I didn’t remember anything . . . what I ate, where I slept — even though I was there for eight weeks. All I can remember is it was a terrible place.”

She added: “It’s very clear to me that electroshock can wipe away parts of you. Everything that was part of me should be mine to have, not for some doctors to take away thinking that it was helping me . . . because it didn’t help me. It was never therapy for me . . . it was wiping away important memories.”

After she left the psychiatric institute, she attended a psychiatrist for a further 15 years, who gave her a cocktail of drugs, including lithium, which she believes caused hallucinations, nightmares and panic attacks.

The grandmum said: “It made me lose my mind. I was a prisoner in my own home. I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t think properly.”

She added: “As a result of ECT, I was on psychiatric drugs for almost a lifetime.”

And Mary believes that the prolonged use of the drugs left her “clinically lobotomised”.

She only stopped taking the medication when her psychiatrist died, and she’s now able to enjoy the company of her grandchildren Lexy, ten, Annalisa, six and three-year-old Harry.

Up to 70 people take part in Mary’s MindFreedom street demos in Cork, while the group also holds support sessions.

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While the number of people getting ECT has dropped dramatically and many clinics have stopped providing it, around 50 people undergo ECT without their consent every year in Ireland.

Prof Kelly pointed out: “Ireland’s rate of involuntary psychiatric admission and treatment is less than half of that in England.”

He insists most patients benefit from the therapy, saying: “Obviously they vastly outnumber those who report adverse effects, but they tend to be less vocal.”