§ Ms. RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list for each of the last three years for which figures are available(a) the number of cases where the Mental Health Commission has been asked to approve 143W the treatment with electro-convulsive therapy of a patient detained under section 2 of the Mental Health Act 1983 and (b) the number of such cases in which the Mental Health Commission has recommended against such treatment.
§ Mrs. CurrieI have asked the Mental Health Act Commission to provide the hon. Member with this information.
§ Ms. RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services for each of the last three years for which figures are available, what was the number of patients treated with electro-convulsive therapy following a diagnosis of puerperal psychosis; and, in each case, what was the average number of treatments per patient.
§ Mrs. CurrieI am sorry I cannot give the hon. Member the figures she has requested. Records of diagnoses of patients receiving electro-convulsive therapy are not collected centrally.
§ Ms. RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list, for each of the last three years for which figures are available, the number of patients in whose deaths electro-convulsive therapy was considered a contributory factor.
§ Mrs. CurrieThe information is not available in exactly the form requested.
However, during 1985 and 1986, the number of deaths registered in England and Wales with "Failure in dosage in electroshock or insulin—shock therapy" (International Classification of Disease code E.873.4) mentioned as a cause of death on the death certificate was nil.
No "mentions" data for 1984 are available, but in that year no death was assigned an underlying cause of E873.4.