Citizens Commission on Human Rights Urges Victims of Brain Stimulation Abuse to Report

Almost exactly two years ago on January 1, 2014, Scientific American magazine published an article on Deep Brain Stimulation, describing an experiment on a Dutch man wherein psychiatric researchers “…bored small holes in his skull and guided two long, thin probes deep into his head. The ends of the probes were lined with small electrodes… [psychiatrists] ran the connecting wires under his scalp, behind his ear and down to a battery pack sewn under the skin of his chest. Once turned on, the electrodes began delivering constant electrical pulses.”

In response to this alarming new therapy, the Citizens Commission of Human Rights of Nashville (CCHR Nashville) has called for victims to report abuse suffered during this or any other psychiatric treatment.

On the website cchrnashville.org, is the question: “Do you know someone who has been damaged by experimental psychiatric treatments including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), deep brain stimulation (DBS) or any other electric shock or magnetic wave to the brain?” Then follows a link to report abuse from these treatments.

CCHR has long been an advocate for human rights, especially as relates to patients’ rights in the field of mental health. Per the international CCHR website, cchr.org, “CCHR has long fought to restore basic inalienable human rights to the field of mental health, including, but not limited to, full informed consent regarding the medical legitimacy of psychiatric diagnosis, the risks of psychiatric treatments, the right to all available medical alternatives and the right to refuse any treatment considered harmful.”

Abuses from treatment may be reported online or by mail. The report form can be found at cchrnashville.org/report-abuse.

CCHR is a non-profit, non-political, non-religious mental health watchdog. Its mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. CCHR receives reports about abuses in the field of mental health and is especially interested in situations where persons experienced abuse or damage due to a false diagnosis or unwanted and harmful psychiatric treatments, such as psychiatric drugs, electroshock (ECT) and electronic or magnetic brain stimulation (TMS). CCHR is often able to assist with filing complaints, and can work with a person’s attorney to further investigate the case. To contact CCHR Nashville for more information, visit cchrnashville.org.