ALCOHOL kills one person every seven hours, a public health expert has said.

MENTAL health campaigner John McCarthy has criticised a statement from Ireland’s psychiatrists defending the quality of the country’s mental health services and its role in advocating for mental health patients.

JOHN McCARTHY, the founder of the advocacy group, Mad Pride, has challenged the country’s leading psychiatrists to prove that he ever suffered a mental illness to justify him being locked up and forcibly medicated.

A CONTENTIOUS Seanad vote on the administration of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was last night adjourned without an expected vote on the issue.

PSYCHIATRISTS in certain areas of the country are “ECT enthusiasts” who are using the treatment in cases where alternatives could be considered, it has been claimed.

THE use of electric shock therapy (ECT) in people with a mental illness should be “banished to the historical rubbish bin” of previous treatments thought to be effective.

VULNERABLE mental health patients could face early discharge or waiting lists for services if community care is not developed before the imposed closure of three old psychiatric hospitals, it has been warned.