Federal officials on Wednesday banned electrical shock devices used to discourage aggressive, self-harming behavior in patients with intellectual disabilities.
The announcement from the Food and Drug Administration follows years of pressure from patient groups and mental health experts who have called the treatment outdated, ineffective and unethical. The agency first announced its intent to ban the devices in 2016.
For years, the shock devices have been used by only one place in the U.S., the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center of Canton, Massachusetts, a residential school for people with autism and other psychiatric, developmental or mental disabilities.
School administrators have called the shocks a last resort to prevent dangerous behaviors, such as head-banging, throwing furniture or attacking teachers or classmates.
The FDA said Wednesday it estimates 45 to 50 people at the school are currently being treated with the device.
A woman who answered the phone at the center Wednesday morning said she could not comment on the FDA action.
Electric shocks and other painful or unpleasant treatments known as “aversive conditioning” were more widely accepted decades ago. But mainstream psychiatry now relies on behavioral modification, prescription drugs and other therapies that have proven more effective.
“Through advancements in medical science, there are now more treatment options available to reduce or stop self-injurious or aggressive behavior,” said Dr. William Maisel, a director in the FDA’s device center, in a statement.
