FDA Ban on Electroshock Devices for Some Patients Vacated (1)

The U.S. government’s ban on an electric shock treatment for patients with self-injurious and aggressive behaviors, but not for other purposes, amounts to impermissibly regulating the practice of medicine, a divided D.C. Circuit panel ruled Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration “lacks the authority to ban a medical device for a particular use,” Judge David B. Sentelle said for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Judge Rotenberg Educational Center Inc., a nonprofit residential treatment center in Massachusetts that uses an electrical stimulation device, challenged the FDA rule, together with parents and guardians of some patients ...