Controversy Surrounds the Future of Electric Shock Devices in Disability Treatment

For over ten years, a coalition of medical professionals, legislators, and autism advocates has campaigned to ban a device that administers painful electric shocks to individuals with severe neurodevelopmental disorders.

Last year, it appeared that a federal prohibition on these devices was close to being enacted. However, political shifts and administrative upheaval in the early months of the Trump administration have introduced significant delays, allowing the continued use of these contentious devices.

Significant budget reductions at federal health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, have disrupted the regulatory process. The FDA's medical devices division had been actively involved in the complex efforts to implement the ban.

Regulators have concluded that the electric shocks, delivered via electrodes attached to the arms and legs, inflict lasting harm and should be discontinued. Nevertheless, some clinicians and family members at a treatment center near Boston argue that the devices serve as a last-resort intervention for managing the most severe behavioral challenges.

The debate over the devices’ future has been intensified by statements from the administration's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has promoted a discredited link between vaccines and autism. He recently described autism as a preventable crisis that profoundly impacts families and limits individuals’ potential, a view that many within the autistic community find demeaning.

Since 2000, autism diagnoses—a condition characterized by difficulties in social interaction and communication—have risen nearly fivefold among children. Experts attribute this increase partly to enhanced screening practices and a broadened definition of the disorder.