Legal aspects of electrotherapy in a catatonic renal transplant patient.

The treatment of a case of catatonic schizophrenia in a renal transplanted patient is presented and demonstrates that electrotherapy can be life-saving and that there are already adequate legal controls which guarantee the patient's rights. Yet zealots are attempting to have legislators pass laws preventing the use of electrotherapy even in voluntary patients. To help prevent these resolutions from being passed, psychiatrists must become more active in the legislative process.