According to an article on the Daily Mail the use of electric shock therapy has been increasing in England, with an increase of 11% in the last four years and the number of treatments per patient rising from 9.6 to 10.1. This article has a negative view of ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) and suggests the cause of the rise is due to increased accessibility and incorrect prescription from medics.
The data was collected from 44 NHS trusts which are trustworthy sources with definitive data rather than a survey. However many trusts were unable to access relevant data and some data provided was found to be incorrect and not included in the survey, this suggests an inaccurate and incomplete recoding of ECT with different practices recording data in a different way. Trusts admitted to having missing data for set periods making the data untrustworthy. The data does not include private practices, and therefore cannot make assumptions about the overall use when there could have been more ECT in private practices in previous years. The overall calculation of 11% increase is correct, with 20,400 treatments in 2012-13 rising to 22,600 treatments in 2015-16. However when looking at individual practices only 66% of trusts reported a rise in ECT carried out over the years. The number of treatments per patient reported was also accurate with 9.6 per patient in 2012-13 increasing to 10.1 in 2015-16, however it is not mentioned that the overall number of patients has also increased from 2,125 to 2,237. There is still a clear increase in treatments per patient but it is not made clear that a greater number of patients are being considered.
Source
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4418804/Electric-shock-therapy-rise-England.html