STUDY CONFIRMS ELECTROSHOCK (ECT) CAUSES BRAIN DAMAGE

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A new study shows ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) causes brain damage? That's not what you will find in the many promotional press releases published in the mainstream media. As usual, biopsychiatric press releases always come out before the research articles are easily available, making critical analysis impossible until the wave of false promotional euphoria has passed. The Bloomberg Newsheadline crowed: "Shock Therapy's Effect on Depression Discovered, Researchers Say."  The Huffington Post news headline, posted March 20, 2012 declared "Shock Therapy's Effect On Depressed Brain Explained by New Electroconvulsive Therapy Study."  Time Healthland's article was titled "How Electroconvulsive Therapy Works for Depression."  Fox News' headline for the Reuters news story they carried said: "Study shows how electrotherapy may treat depression."

The media coverage was unquestioning and wholly positive. ECT is touted as the best treatment for depression and we are told that science has finally, after more than 70 years, found out how it works. The method used was bilateral ECT -- the most grossly damaging and most commonly used form of the treatment. Both electrodes are placed over the temples, overlapping the frontal lobes of the brain. The most intensive surge of electricity hits the memory centers in the tip of the temporal lobes and affects the highest human functions in the frontal lobes.

The title of the research paper actually tells the story: "Electroconvulsive therapy reduces frontal cortical connectivity in severe depressive disorder." The specific area is the "dorsolateral prefrontal cortical region." This is the same area assaulted by surgical lobotomy. It contains nerve trunks connecting the rest of the brain with the frontal lobes -- the seat of our capacity to be thoughtful, insightful, loving, and creative. Think of what it takes to be a person; all of that requires the unimpaired functioning and connectivity of the frontal lobes of your brain.

Using a functional MRI in nine patients, the authors of the study conclude, "Our results show that ECT has lasting effects on the functional architecture of the brain." The result of these lasting effects is "decrease in functional connectivity" with other parts of the brain. In other words, the frontal lobes are cut off from the rest of the brain. The authors call this "disconnectivity." Does this sound familiar? It is a "lasting" frontal lobotomy.

This new study contradicts claims by shock advocates such as psychiatrist David Healy that ECT does not cause brain damage. 

The report argues that this ECT effect supports the idea that depressive patients have too much activity in their frontal lobes and are returned to normal bv damaging the offending area of the brain. Psychiatry frequently takes this position. For example, antipsychotic drugs (which four of the nine patients were taking) also reduce the function of the frontal lobes, in this case by suppressing the main trunk nerves from deeper in the brain to the frontal lobes (dopamine neurotransmission). Proponents of the drugs then claim that the patients have an excess of activity in these nerve trunks, so that the patient is helped by damaging the region. 

The word "damage" is never used in this study. But what else are these "lasting effects on the functional architecture of the brain," other than a manifestation of ECT-induced brain damage in the before and after shock treatment MRIs that were done? The study is so poorly reported that we only know that the MRIs were conducted sometime "after," presumably very soon after the ECT. We can only hope that these victims of ECT will recover with time, but the most extensive long-term follow-up study indicates that most ECT patients will never recover from the damage in the form of persistent severe mental deficits. 

Since the patients had all been heavily medicated in the past, and were continued on medications and given anesthesia during the ECT -- a combination of traumatic effects probably complicate and add to the brain damage to the frontal lobes. 

For a long time now, I have been scientifically demonstrating that ECT is a closed-head injury in the form of an electrical lobotomy. Now we find that the ECT damage is sufficiently gross to show up on an MRI -- but we are told it's good for the patients. This is what I call "the brain-disabling principle of psychiatric treatment." Lobotomy, ECT and psychiatric drugs all share the common factor that they "work" by damaging the brain and suppressing brain function. 

The authors of the study note that antidepressants probably work by doing the same thing -- producing "disconnectivity" between emotion-regulating centers in the brain. 

From its inception, psychiatry has promoted brain damage as treatment. Nothing has changed in this regard except the arguments are more subtle and lobotomy is now being called "disconnectivity."

The authors argue that the patients are helped because they do better on a checklist of depressive symptoms. In this study, the checklist was administered after the last ECT, the period of time when the patient's brain is most acutely disturbed and the individual is frequently disoriented and even delirious. It would be similar to giving a psychological test to someone right after a very severe series of concussions.

After brain injury -- especially to the highest centers which express emotional awareness, self-insight, and judgment -- individuals stop reporting their upset or distressing feelings. They have either lost awareness or they are too apathetic to care anymore. That, again, is the lobotomy effect. Apathy and indifference is the final result of all of the most potent psychiatric treatments. 

Peter R. Breggin, MD, is a psychiatrist in private practice in Ithaca, New York, and the author of more than 20 books, including The Heart of Being Helpful, Toxic Psychiatry, and Medication Madness. On April 13-15, 2012, Dr. Breggin and Mrs. Breggin welcome professionals and the public to their second Empathic Therapy Conference in Syracuse, New York. Meet the Breggins and listen to dozens of other incredible presenters talk about the hazards of modern psychiatry and the benefits of caring therapeutic approaches to emotional suffering. You can learn about and sign up for this inspiring and confidence-building conference at www.EmpathicTherapy.org. 

For more by Dr. Peter Breggin, click here.

ABUSE VICTIM ENDS YEARS OF SILENCE TO FIGHT FOR OTHERS

By Simon Collins

Netta Christian was abused by her foster mother. Photo / Thinkstock

A 73-year-old woman who was abused while in state care as a child has finally broken her silence to seek a better deal for hundreds of others.

Netta Christian, who lives in a retirement complex in Hamilton, won $10,000 compensation in an out of court settlement of her case against the Ministry of Social Development last year.

But she didn't receive a cent of the money because it all went on fees for her lawyer, Sonja Cooper.

Ms Cooper, a Wellington lawyer who represents 400 to 500 former state wards, said the Legal Services Agency had refused to pay legal aid for most new claimants because it thought their cases would fail in court.

Mrs Christian has placed a public notice in today's Herald asking other former state wards who suffered abuse to contact her "with a view to addressing and hopefully changing a system which is still flawed and unsound".

She was six months old when she and her brother were taken away from their brain-damaged mother, and eight months old when they were placed with a foster family in Papatoetoe where she stayed until she married about 20 years later.

Her foster father was "a lovely man", but she later found out that her foster mother was psychotic.

"I was assaulted by my foster mother," Mrs Christian said.

"She thrashed me with a belt that hung behind the bathroom door. She used to whip me with it. I was terrified, I didn't know she was mad."

Mrs Christian wrote to the welfare department asking to be moved to another family, but "they never followed up".

She was abused twice by other people.

"I had a neighbour abuse me for eight months when I was 12. She was having a breakdown," she said. "A family member abused me when I was 14."

The foster mother and Mrs Christian's brother are now dead.

She started seeking compensation only in 2002 when she returned from Australia and saw Ms Cooper's advertisement in a newspaper. She said Ms Cooper was "wonderful", but the case became "a waste of time" because the compensation only paid her legal fees.

"I've dealt with it. I'm moving on with my life," she said.

"But I don't think it's right for heinous crimes to be committed against innocent children and for no one to be held accountable.

"I want to change it for other people. This is my life's work till I die. I want special laws to be introduced for state wards because we slipped through the cracks."

The Legal Service Agency's recent tough line on historic abuse cases was upheld by a High Court decision in December which found that most claimants were barred by limit on legal actions being started more than six years after an action occurred.

Ms Cooper said she was working with Crown lawyers and officials to try to establish new procedures "that will put to one side the legal defences and concentrate on the facts of each client's case and whether the Department of Social Welfare breached its duty of care owed to the clients".

Email: neta38@xtra.co.nz

- NZ Herald

NZ TODDLER GIVEN OVERDOSE OF CODEINE

Lincoln Tan 

Lincoln Tan is the New Zealand Herald’s diversity, ethnic affairs and immigration senior reporter.

6:21 PM Monday Feb 23, 2015

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• Health and Disability Commissioner

File photo / Thinkstock

Two registered nurses have been found to be in breach of health codes for administering 10 times the recommended dose of codeine to a child at a private hospital.

Health and Disability Commissioner Anthony Hill today released a report into the care provided to a 3-year-old boy who was admitted for routine surgery to remove his adenoids and tonsils.

The recommended dose of codeine for the boy, based on his weight, was 8.5mg -- but he was administered 85mg orally by one of the nurses.

Before administering the medication, the nurse had asked a senior nurse to check the prescription with her according to hospital policy, the report said.

Both read the prescription for codeine as 85mg, and discussed that it was a large dose but neither checked with the anaesthetist.

The boy was due to have a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy surgery, and his sister, aged 4, was due to have the same procedures immediately afterwards.

The nurse realised that a mistake had been made only after she checked the sister's prescription, which was for 8mg of codeine.

The boy had his stomach washed out and had the surgery as planned.

The commissioner considered the nurse demonstrated "very poor judgement" and the actions of the senior nurse were "concerning".

He found both nurses in breach of the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumer Rights for failing to provide services to the boy with appropriate care and skill.

The report also criticised the legibility and comprehensiveness of the anaesthetist's documentation.

The commissioner recommended the nurses and the hospital provide written apologies to the boy and his family and asked the Nursing Council of NZ to consider reviewing the competence of the nurse.

The hospital had also been asked to undertake staff training on the importance of clear, open and supportive communication with patients and their families.

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X LAKE ALICE DOCTOR LOSES SEX CASE APPEAL IN AUSTRALIA

Electro-shock doc loses sex case appeal

The Dominion Post | Friday, 14 March 08

 Former Lake Alice Hospital psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks has lost an appeal in Australia against a $55,000 damages payout to a patient who says she was sexually assaulted by him. Leeks headed the Rangitikei hospital's child and adolescent unit, which closed in the late 1970s, before heading to Australia to continue practising. He was accused of punishing patients at Lake Alice with electric shocks (ECT) and painful drug injections. Other staff have been accused of sexually abusing patients. In 2001, after a lengthy investigation, the Government gave apologies and compensation to a group of former patients of the unit. It later extended these to a second group, bringing to $10.7 million the total paid to 183 people. The Melbourne Age newspaper reported that the Victorian Court of Appeal dismissed Leeks' appeal last week against a civil prosecution there from an alleged sexual assault victim. The woman said in 1979 and 1980 she endured Leeks undressing her, touching and licking her breasts and digitally penetrating her. At the time the woman, a mother of two children, was a psychiatric patient with a history of physical and sexual abuse. Leeks denies he abused any patients. Another Australian newspaper said it had spoken to a different woman who alleges she was abused by Leeks. A large number of former Lake Alice patients, aided by lawyers, are still pursuing ways to seek justice against Leeks and other staff. Citizens Commission on Human Rights executive director Steve Green told NZPA today those seeking justice felt they were being obstructed when trying to further their cases through police and government. "They can't really get any closure until there is some accountability," Mr Green said. He said patients would have taken heart from the civil Victorian case against Leeks and would continue to investigate. There have also been calls for Leeks to be extradited from Australia. Detective Superintendent Malcolm Burgess of the New Zealand Police said today there were no immediate plans for police here to push for Leeks' extradition, but the file was "still under active consideration".

LEGAL AID GIVEN THEN WITHDRAWN

$11m OF LEGAL AID APPROVED TO FIGHT FOR ABUSE COMPO 

More than $11 million of state-funded legal aid has been approved or already paid to pursue hundreds of historic abuse compensation claims shuffling their way through the court system.
Some of the claims were first filed nearly 10 years ago but only a handful have been heard and so far no court has awarded compensation.
One lawyer, Sonja Cooper, says it would take about 150 years to hear the claims at this rate. She wants an out- of-court system to resolve the claims.
The Legal Services Agency, which administers legal aid, says more than 900 people have asked for legal aid to sue for the damage they say decades- old psychological, physical and sexual abuse caused them. Claims are still being filed.
Legal aid for about 50 people was refused at the outset and about 300 more have either dropped their claims or had legal aid withdrawn after it was initially granted, the agency says.
It began reconsidering funding in the wake of the first few claims failing. When legal aid was withdrawn for some claimants, the withdrawal decisions were taken to a review panel and then on appeal to the High Court.

The United Nations Committee Against Torture has asked the Government what it is doing to ensure the allegations are investigated, perpetrators prosecuted and victims compensated and rehabilitated.
An Auckland lawyer who has continued to represent Palmerston North man Past patient without payment after legal aid was withdrawn says it may take the Supreme Court or the UN to vindicate Patient' claims.
But the case must go to the top New Zealand court before the UN will consider it.
Evgeny Orlov says that, at its heart, the way the claimants were treated at the time and in the court system is a human rights issue. The same kind of treatment that the historic cases have raised is continuing even now. "What is left unpunished will continue to smoulder in the unconscious."

TORTURE DOESN'T STOP FOR BOYS HOME CLAIMANT

Past patient could not understand why he was sent to Lake Alice psychiatric hospital and Epuni Boys Home when he was a teenager.

He says he was bashed, sexually assaulted and given electro-convulsive therapy as punishment. And now, more than 30 years later, he does not know why people he says were responsible have not been exposed and why he has not received fair compensation for the damage they caused in his life.
"I have such a clear cut case, I don't know why they have struck me out," Mr Banks says of a decision that his claim for $5 million compensation cannot continue. "I can't go out and earn an income - I want someone to pay for that."

Now 51, the Palmerston North man says money is not his only goal. "I want them exposed. They need to be named and shamed; there needs to be a mark against their names."
For four months in 1973, in between spells in Lake Alice, Mr Banks, then 14, was sent to Epuni Boys' Home in Lower Hutt for preventive supervision. The home closed in the 1990s.

He was scared that an ECT machine like the one at Lake Alice would appear so he locked himself in the toilet. A staff member sexually assaulted him and he was beaten up so often he was sent back to Lake Alice.
He was tortured then and he is being tortured again now, he said. He has been diagnosed with post- traumatic stress disorder, as well as anxiety and depressive symptoms.
In 2006, he started a civil case against the Social Welfare Department. More than three years later, a judge has ruled his claim cannot proceed. His allegations were denied generally, but the frontline defence was that his claim was brought too late.

Like many of the more than 900 others who have made claims for historic abuse in various kinds of institutions - mostly psychiatric hospitals, welfare homes, and military training schools - he has run up against the Limitation Act.
It imposes a two-year window within which to launch some types of civil claims. That window can be widened to six years in some circumstances.
The Limitation Act timeframes can be changed in cases where a person was not immediately able to link an event with the mental or physical damage they say resulted, or that they were under a disability, for instance a mental illness, that meant they could not start proceedings earlier.
The emergence of so many historic abuse claims has led to refinements in this part of the law.

But Justice Gendall said that, in Mr Banks' case, the difficult legal questions did not need further consideration because there was no evidence to back up his claim that he could not, and did not, link his psychological damage to events at the boys' home. To avoid the Limitation Act, there needed to be an incapacity and not just "an inability to face up to the process of suing", the judge said.
Justice Gendall said that at age 18, in 1977, Mr Banks had complained to mental health authorities about the Lake Alice events. In 1999, he joined with a group of former patients who won an out-of-court settlement.
But the judge who struck out his Epuni claim said Mr Banks should have asked for permission to bring the case about Epuni at the very latest in April 2005, and probably much earlier.

"It has cut me pretty deep," Mr Banks said. It had taken him a lifetime to get this far and he did not care if it took him till the grave to get justice.
He continues to press for criminal charges against former psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks, who administered ECT at Lake Alice. Mr Banks was instrumental in exposing him in 1999.

Dr Leeks moved to Australia in the late 1970s. In 2006, he escaped a doctors' disciplinary inquiry in Victoria by promising not to practice again. 

UN ASKS GOVT TO RE-OPEN HOSPITAL ABUSE PROBE

Villa 11at Lake Alice Hospital. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The United Nations has sent the Government a please-explain letter over the stalled police investigation into claims of child torture at the former Lake Alice psychiatric hospital.

The UN's committee against torture has raised concerns over the police decision to end its investigation in 2009 without prosecuting any staff of the now-closed hospital near Wanganui.

Ex-patients and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights - a psychiatry watchdog linked to the Church of Scientology - complained to the UN over what they consider a lack of justice for victims.

A representative of the UN committee, Felice Gaer, asks in her letter if the Government "intends to carry out an impartial investigation into the nearly 200 allegations of torture and ill-treatment against minors at Lake Alice" and prosecute and punish the perpetrators.

She asks if there will be an independent review of the "sufficiency" of the police investigation, if there will be a probe into claims the police failed to interview some complainants, and if the investigation will be re-opened.

A Justice Ministry spokeswoman said last night the Government would respond but declined to give an indication of what it might say.

Ex-patient Paul Zentveld yesterday rejoiced at what he took as the support of the world body.

"I said we were going to the UN and everyone laughed. Three and a half years later and look at this. I'm so happy," said Mr Zentveld, 51, who was admitted to the hospital's child and adolescent unit five times between the ages of 12 and 16.

He told the committee in a letter that he had been tortured at the unit, which operated from 1972 to 1977 under the authority of psychiatrist Dr Selwyn Leeks.

Dr Leeks, who later shifted to Melbourne, was about to face a charge of unprofessional conduct from a Victorian medical authority but surrendered his medical licence on the eve of the hearings in 2006. Separately, an Australian court ordered him to pay $55,000 in damages to a woman patient for sexually abusing her.

In 2001, the Government began apologising and paying compensation, which eventually exceeded $10 million, to more than 180 former Lake Alice child patients, including $115,000 for Mr Zentveld.

A report by retired High Court judge Sir Rodney Gallen said they had been subjected to a behaviour modification programme which he labelled a regime of "terror".

More than 30 victims made complaints to the police against Dr Leeks and other former staff members. But the police decided they had no evidence of criminal offending.

STUDY CALLS FOR ELIMINATING ISOLATION TECHNIQUES

--Seclusion, the practice of isolating individual mental health patients from everyone else, is not an effective form of treatment and puts them in danger of physical and psychological harm, a report from New Zealand's Mental Health Commission revealed Monday.

The Commission study, launched in 2001, studied the use of seclusion in mental health facilities across the country.

Researchers found that more than one-third of all mental health patients were placed in seclusion for part of their hospitalization, at an average of 50 hours a month. At least one person was locked up for 600 hours -- the equivalent of 25 days -- in one month. The least amount of time in seclusion was one hour.

While therapy, containment and punishment were given as the reasons for isolating certain people, the study found little proof that seclusion benefited patients or staff.

"As a therapeutic intervention, seclusion was portrayed as solitude – calm, serene and contemplative," the study said. "Evidence now suggests that seclusion poses significant risks to service users, including death, re-traumatisation, loss of dignity and other psychological harm. As a punishment, seclusion has been portrayed as remedial, although this rationale is not sanctioned under New Zealand law."

"The research evidence does not support seclusion as a treatment or therapy. The research literature also sees seclusion as a containment procedure that can be psychologically damaging for some people. Qualitative literature indicates that feelings of helplessness, punishment and depression are common, as are feelings of anger, frustration, confusion and fear."

The study found further that many of the actual reasons patients were secluded had less to do with the patients' behavior and more to do with their institutional environment.

"Seclusion is supposed to be a 'last resort' intervention. However, in practice the resources, staffing constraints and the operational environment limit the use of alternative practices (e.g., quiet lounges, specialling, time out, confinement without isolation or reduced sensory input). Seclusion reduces risks and ambiguity for staff and is a procedure justified by legislation and policy. Within such an environment, seclusion can become an all too easy intervention. This raises serious questions about human rights and the duty of care."

Jan Dowland, the Chair of the panel, wrote that the Mental Health Commission would like to see the use of seclusion eliminated for mental health patients, and that an immediate reduction is called for.

BUT do we in nz take any notice no we still strip people naked and lock them in a room and force ECT on them and wonder why when they get out they complain they should be thankful they have been cured 

PITIFUL INVESTIGATION BY POLICE INTO ABUSE

New Zealand police are investigating new allegations that Dr. Selwyn Leeks abused youths at Lake Alice Hospital's child and adolescent unit during the 1970s.

The latest complaint was filed by an unnamed 45-year-old Auckland man who claimed that Leeks, who was in charge of the psychiatric institution from 1972 to 1977, allowed him to be tortured with painful injections, solitary confinement and electric shocks as punishment.

The man said he was in his teens at the time of the alleged abuse.

More than 30 former patients have called for Dr. Leeks to face criminal charges for his part in the abuse they claim they suffered at Lake Alice. The average age of the patients at the time of the alleged abuse was 11 years.

Those former patients claim that staff at the institution, under Leek's direction, routinely used electric shock to punish them for everything from getting poor grades to not eating their meals. In some cases, other patients, including children, dealt out the punishments. They also claimed that they were locked in rooms with adults who sexually abused them.

Last September, police dropped plans to extradite Leeks from Australia to face criminal charges, saying they did not have enough evidence.

In recent years, more than 300 former patients of New Zealand's psychiatric hospitals have come forward saying they were abused at the facilities during the 1960s and 1970s.

Nearly all of the facilities have been closed in favor of community-based supports. The adolescent unit at Lake Alice was closed in 1978.

MORE THAN 300 FILE ABUSE COMPLAINTS AGAINST FORMER INSTITUTIONS

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express

July 15, 2004

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND--More than 300 people have come forward to state that they were mistreated while housed at New Zealand mental institutions during the 1960s and 70s.

Of those, at least 200 have filed claims alleging that while they were at Porirua Hospital they were beaten, sexually assaulted, over-medicated, unwillingly subjected to experiments in electro-convulsive treatments, and placed in isolation for long periods of time -- sometimes for months.

In recent weeks, many of those allegations have been confirmed by former staff members.

One former social worker told the Dominion Post this week that she resigned from Porirua in 1964 after telling officials she was concerned that a 12-year-old boy was being kept in an adult ward where another patient was sexually abusing him.

"They (the doctors) never bothered to speak to patients and find out what was troubling them or why they were there. They were just treated like nonentities," said Eva Naylor. "We came across patients who were just kept there, locked away."

So far, 65 legal claims have been filed in the High Court, each asking for as much as $500,000 in compensation and up to $50,000 in exemplary damages. Another 40 cases are close to being filed, according to Sonja Cooper, an attorney representing many of the former residents.

Attorney-General Margaret Wilson said that extra staff were being hired to assist in investigating the claims. She said that the courts will then decide if the government is legally liable.

Until recently officials had believed the abuses were confined to Porirua and one other former institution. As more claimants came forward in the past few months, nearly all of the country's psychiatric hospitals had been implicated.

Most of the facilities either are closed or no longer operate as mental institutions.

FORMER LAKE ALICE PATIENTS VOW TO CONTINUE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express

September 23, 2005

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND--Advocates and former Lake Alice Hospital patients said they would continue their push for justice this week, even after police said they have no evidence that Dr. Selwyn Leeks abused them three decades ago.

According to Wednesday's New Zealand Herald, a national police spokesperson announced that there was "no disclosed activity or intervention with patients at Lake Alice that amounts to criminal offending on the part of Dr. Selwyn Leeks."

The spokesperson added that police are, therefore, not required nor authorized to seek Leek's extradition from Melbourne, Australia, where he now practices.

"We're not giving up now," said Citizens Commission on Human Rights executive director, Steve Green. "We are still working with victims and are still going to be filing criminal complaints."

Leeks ran the child and adolescent unit at Lake Alice from 1972 to 1977. More than 30 former patients have called for criminal charges to be filed against him for his part in their abuse. The average age of the patients at the time of the alleged abuse was 11 years.

Those former patients claim that staff at the institution, under Leek's direction, routinely used electric shock to punish the youths for everything from getting poor grades to not eating their meals. In some cases, other patients, including children, dealt out the punishments. They also claimed that they were locked in rooms with adults who sexually abused them.

Former patient Paul Zentveld said he was preparing a complaint against Leeks.

"Let them turn us down at the moment but we aren't going away," Zentveld said. "Justice will be served one day."

In recent years, several millions of dollars have been paid to hundreds of former patients of New Zealand mental institutions who claimed they had been abused while at the facilities.

Nearly all of the facilities have been closed in favor of community-based supports. The adolescent unit at Lake Alice was closed in 1978.

GOVERNMENT TO APPEAL COURT ORDERED PAYOUTS TO ABUSE VICTUMS

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express

October 12, 2006

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND--The New Zealand Ministry of Health said Tuesday that it would appeal a court's order to pay $34,000 that had been withheld from a $114,000 compensation package for former Lake Alice Hospital patient Paul Zentveld.

According to the New Zealand Herald, the ministry said the Wellington District Court was wrong last month when it made that ruling, which could affect scores of people who were patients of the psychiatric hospital's adolescent unit during the 1960s and 1970s. Those patients, most of whom were between age 8 and 16 at the time of their hospitalisations, have alleged that they endured years of abuse at the hands of adult patients and staff.

The government promised compensation to many of the former Lake Alice patients in 2001. But when they received the money, as much as 30 percent of what they had been promised was missing. The government said the money was withheld for legal fees.

In their complaints, those former patients alleged that, among other things, staff at the institution routinely used electric shock treatments, painful injections, and isolation to punish them for everything from getting poor grades to not eating their meals. In some cases, other patients, including children, dealt out the punishments. Some also claimed that they were locked in rooms with adults who sexually abused them.

Last week, lawyers for 350 former patients of other New Zealand institutions claimed their clients were subjected to abuse similar to what those at Lake Alice endured. One of the attorneys, Roger Chapman, said that even though the first of those claims is scheduled for court in October 2007, he expects many more former patients to come forward in the next few months.

Most of the facilities named in the complaints are either closed or no longer operate as mental institutions.

But The payouts were also ex gratia, not proper compensation and merely settling an out of court civil action against the Government