That's the barren truth of campaigns and perhaps of campaigners.
I am thinking of something different. It's applying campaign techniques to important papers.
For example the result that in high quality trials ECT has no effect compared to placebo on followup.
There's more significance than simply the cessation of ECT, forced or with consent. There's the accountability for the crime against humanity.
Doctors can get away with some terrible things by using a simple "doh!" and I feel this isn't acceptable. There is clearly an error in psychiatric practice and evidence practices.
The worst and unrecognised wholesale slaughter in the UK was by doctors treating elderly patients with antipsychotics. They didn't need to. The symptms of dementia have been accepted for many generations. They allowed the possibility of their removal using a behavioural change agent. It was only after the study showiing life expectancy was halved then the susequent report from the RCPsych which estimated 1,800 unnecessary deaths were caused every year. This is significantly higher than the homicide rate.
In a sense this was an evidence based change driven by research. The fact is doctords got away with it and the change was not effected by a campaigning organisation.
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