Mental health support groups want a ban on the use of controversial electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) on patients who haven’t given consent.
ECT is most often used in cases of severe depression, and if patients don’t give their consent, clinicians can order it if they get approval from a second, independent, psychiatrist.
But chief executive of the Mental Health Foundation Judi Clements says a patient’s lack of choice is a breach of human rights.
ECT was administered without consent 495 times in 2011, but in 2012, that figure rose to 690.