A 24-year-old Russian man has allegedly been “cured of the disease of homosexuality” after a controversial new treatment reports the Moscow Herald.
Mikhail Koudrine, no longer suffers from “symptoms of homosexuality” after he successfully underwent a new controversial electroshock therapy by the Russian Institute for Medical Sciences in Novosibirsk.
The new 13-week program, which is still under federal evaluation, uses a variety of methods such as electroshock therapy, hypnotherapy, prolonged exposition to music, sleep deprivation as well as the use of drugs such as LSD.
“I am very proud of me and of my country if I have helped find a cure to the disease of homosexuality, Even though I still suffer from episodes of memory loss and small episodic blackouts, I still think it was worth it,” he admitted to reporters.
Even though a number of countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran have already publicly shown their interest in the new treatment, the controversial methods raise a number of ethical questions, explains Dr. Andrew Borowski, professor of psychology at the University of Chicago.
“I understand that the study is done upon consenting individuals, but we are talking about putting patients into prolonged periods of sleep deprivation for several days through the administration of barbiturates, drugs that depress the central nervous system, and LSD,” he explained.
“This is followed by massive doses of electroshock therapy over the course of several weeks, ultimately reducing patients to a childlike state,” he continued, visibly worried.
“The method consists essentially of the administration of two to four electroshocks daily to the point where the patient develops acute confusion, disorientation, and interference with learned habits of eating and bladder and bowel control.”
A Russian Institute for Medical Sciences spokesman has assured that all experiments have been conducted on “consenting participants” who wished to “change their lives in a positive manner” and that all procedures have been conducted by medical professionals in a highly ethical way.
