Ruben Amorim, January 2025: “The Kobbie position, we need time to understand the players, he was struggling a lot defending as a midfielder.”

Harry Maguire, August 2026: “I think without the ball now, [Kobbie’s] becoming a real monster in there, and I think he wins a lot of second balls. He wins a lot of duels. You won’t want to play against him in there.”

What a difference 18 months can make. So little faith did Amorim have in Kobbie Mainoo as a midfielder that a few days after that quote above, he actually started the academy graduate as a centre-forward.

Amorim wanted Mainoo close to the opposition box because of his quick feet and ability to play in the half spaces. He has a catalogue of goals that would suggest that wasn’t the worst idea, but Amorim’s ulterior motives were also clear. He didn’t want Mainoo near his own penalty area.

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Eventually, with two No.10s and a centre-forward in the building, Mainoo disappeared from view. He was a substitute every week under Amorim and his Manchester United career was hanging by a thread until the Portuguese head coach was dismissed.

You wonder what Amorim makes of this version of Mainoo. The 21-year-old was back in the starting XI on Sunday and delivered another all-round display that marked out his burgeoning talent. A penny for the thoughts of Thomas Tuchel, too.

Mainoo’s off-the-ball work improved last season, when he was immediately restored to the side by Michael Carrick and formed an impressive midfield partnership with Casemiro. But with the Brazilian having left and Carlos Baleba not yet fit, Mainoo played the deepest role against Ipswich and looked every bit an elite-level No. 6.

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While Youri Tielemans and Bruno Fernandes both played 28 passes into the final third, Mainoo had only half that tally. But that wasn’t his role. He was combative, he was physical, he won his battles and he was aware of the danger around him. He certainly wasn’t struggling to defend as a midfielder.

Mainoo won nine of his 13 duels and won possession 10 times. Both were highs among his United teammates. There were also three tackles, two interceptions and two fouls won, a vital skill for a deep-lying midfielder to ease the pressure on his team.

Centre-backs can often be the best judges of those playing directly in front of them, because they see when they are being well protected, and they will notice when they are not. So the fact that Mainoo’s contribution won so much praise from Maguire felt telling.

“I think his work without the ball has improved so much since Michael’s been in. That’s probably credit to Michael and his staff,” he said.

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It was evident last season that, towards the end of the campaign, Mainoo’s defensive work was getting better and better. He has bulked up and improved his physicality, but his positioning and awareness have improved immeasurably as well.

You don’t win possession and win duels as often as Mainoo did against Ipswich without putting yourself in the right position, which is half the battle when playing that role.

In fairness to Mainoo, he was chucked in at the deep end as a teenager by playing in midfield in Erik ten Hag’s second version of United. Having built a stable and defensive side in 2022/23, he tried to move through the gears but left huge holes in midfield that Casemiro and Mainoo struggled to fill.

It’s not a coincidence that that same partnership looked so much more secure under Carrick when the positioning was better, the gaps in the team were smaller, and there was more control.

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Now United have lost the experience of Casemiro, and while Baleba looks like the natural No.6 in this midfield, there should be no concerns around Mainoo filling that role either.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has ruthlessly sacked her shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride and replaced him with one of the architects of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget

New shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith was financial secretary to the Treasury – number three in the department – when Ms Truss’s mini-Budget caused a run on the gilt market and almost bankrupted the country.

He was a strong advocate of the former prime minister’s plans to slash taxes and his appointment appears to be an indication that Ms Badenoch wants the party to take a more aggressive direction after the cautious approach of Sir Mel.

The Tory leader has consistently refused to apologise for the Truss mini-Budget or throw the former PM out of the party.

Now she has put one of her key lieutenants and supporter of the hardcore tax-cutting approach in charge of economic policy as she tries to take on Nigel Farage and Reform.

In a hint that he still supports the Truss approach to the country’s finances, Mr Griffiths pointedly tweeted: “The Conservatives will always back the risk-takers and wealth creators who deliver growth, investment and jobs.”

He tweeted: “It is a huge honour to become shadow chancellor for the party I joined as a teenager under Margaret Thatcher. Working as a team, we Conservatives will deliver an economic revolution.

“We will deliver lower, simpler taxes, get Britain drilling again to bring down energy costs, slash the red tape holding Britain back, and scrap the job-killing measures in Labour’s (Un)Employment Rights Act.”

Lib Dem deputy leader and Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper said: “Griffith helped deliver the Truss mini-budget that sent mortgages soaring &the economy into turmoil.

It’s clear Conservatives haven’t learned a thing. His appointment to shadow chancellor shows they’re happy to forfeit any claim to economic credibility in their race to the bottom with Reform UK.”

The move comes as the Conservative leader embarks on her first major reshuffle of her top team amid concerns it has been underperforming and holding the party’s recovery back.

A reshuffle had been inevitable after Sir James Cleverly resigned as shadow housing secretary to run as London mayor and with Julia Lopez shadowing the former science ministry, which has been abolished by Andy Burnham.

The decision to ditch Sir Mel, a former welfare secretary who had been a major critic of Truss’s mini-Budget, comes after she sacked Dame Priti Patel as shadow foreign secretary and replaced her with former security minister Tom Tugendhat.

Shadow health secretary Stuart Andrew has also been shown the exit door after the party made little impression in taking on Labour over its handling of the NHS.

However, after the steady hand of Sir Mel on Treasury policy, Ms Badenoch had been urged within the party to go for a bolder strategy with a new face.

This has been confirmed with the appointment of Mr Griffith, a former Sky News executive.

A senior Conservative source said: “Kemi is changing the way the Conservative Party approaches economic policy and creating a new economic leadership team for the next phase, focused on growth, higher living standards and fiscal credibility.

“The team will be led by Andrew Griffith, a no-nonsense, pro-growth shadow chancellor with real business experience.”

Claire Coutinho, who is due to go on maternity leave, will be Mr Griffith’s deputy across the economic brief, as well as shadow business secretary.

When she returns her task will be to make sure growth translates into higher living standards. Richard Fuller will be focused on fiscal discipline and the savings work which underpins the economic programme.

Ms Coutinho had impressed as shadow energy secretary and was credited in pushing Mr Burnham to look at abandoning some of former energy secretary Ed Miliband’s hard line net zero policies on blocking new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.

She is likely to be replaced by Scottish MP Andrew Bowie as shadow energy secretary with rising star Harriet Cross expected to become shadow Scottish secretary.

According to the senior party source, the new Conservative Economic Unit will be the driving force of the shadow cabinet’s business and economic policies.

Sir Mel had started the party on its road to recovery and overseen introducing the policy of scrapping stamp duty. But he had generally urged caution, especially on reversing Labour controversial National Insurance hike which has caused the jobs market to dry up.

In a statement, Sir Mel said: “The Conservative party must continue to champion an approach which is both radical and deliverable. It is essential that the next Conservative government does things very differently, backing business like never before and getting government out of the way. The Conservatives have a good story to tell on this now and one that I know will continue to grow stronger and stronger under Kemi’s leadership.”

Ms Badenoch paid tribute to Sir Mel and Dame Priti in a statement

She said: “Like Priti, Mel came into the job at an exceptionally difficult point for the Conservative Party. He brought experience, seriousness and stability when those things were badly needed.

“He helped us steady the ship, rebuild economic credibility and become an effective opposition, and I am genuinely grateful for his contribution. The Conservative Party would not have got where we are without his work and his very effective skewering of Rachel Reeves and her disastrous time as chancellor.

“Mel has been very supportive of the new economic team and the party, and been exceptionally loyal, and I will always be grateful to him for the work he has done.”

Armed police have raided properties in the Middlesbrough area where a woman and her seven-year-old niece were killed in a suspicious house fire.

Officers armed with rifles were seen aiming their weapons towards homes on Burns Road, Grangetown in the early hours of today.

Witnesses said one person was arrested and a vehicle was seized.

The raid comes after a week of escalating violence thought to be linked to a postcode war between two factions of a local organised crime group, as well as a deadly motorway crash that killed two police officers and five youths.

The young men in the car were said to have been pursuing rival gang members  shortly before driving the wrong way down the A66 and smashing into a police vehicle that PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough were in. 

Michael Cahill, 23, Jakub Matusiak, 23, Makai Saddington, 18, Theo Rae, 17, and Cole Worthy, 17, all died in the crash. Four of them had lengthy criminal records ranging from theft, harassment and assault to drug dealing and knife possession.

A fatal house fire also took place in the small area of Middlesbrough last Wednesday, killing Natalie McDonald, 34, and Valentina Foster, seven. 

While the blaze is thought to be related to local gangs, it has not been linked directly with the car crash at this stage.

Officers were seen aiming their weapons through the doors of one home. Cleveland Police is yet to comment on the raids

Multiple police vehicles were parked in Burns Road in Grangetown, which has been rocked by violence in recent days 

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A 31-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of murder has since been released without charge. 

A second man, 23-year-old Jaden Wright, is being questioned by police after appearing in court on Saturday charged with grievous bodily harm and strangulation in relation to an incident in Grange Farm Road on Tuesday, August 25.

Fires were seen in local fields after at least five cars were set alight at a balloon release in memory of one of the crash victims.

Anna Turley, the Labour MP for Redcar, who is also a Home Office minister, told BBC News: ‘Seeing illegal bikes and quad bikes rampaging, and fires and fireworks being set off only heightens people’s sense of fear and lawlessness.

‘While I understand people are grieving and upset, we cannot allow illegal activity to be excused and unchecked.’

PC Blades and PC Clough were remembered with a minute’s applause ahead of a match between Middlesbrough and West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, while PC Blades’ sons walked out as mascots with Manchester United yesterday.

Supporters also paid their respects at Seaton Carew’s game against FC Hartlepool. PC Blades had been a junior coach for both teams.

The home of Worthy’s father Gye was ram-raided just hours before the crash. The 39-year-old has no links to criminality. 

PC Matthew Blades, 37, was killed when his police vehicle was struck by a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way down the A66 near Middlesbrough 

PC Tom Clough, 38, also died in the crash, which occurred around ten seconds after a police pursuit of the Volkswagen was called off 

Valentina Foster, seven, and her aunt Natalie McDonald, 34, died in a house fire on Wednesday

The scene of devastation at the home in Grangetown where Ms McDonald and young Valentina died in a fire last week

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It has also emerged that a rival gang rammed the home of Rae’s mother moments before the crash happened. 

A series of subsequent ram-raids on homes across the area are thought to be linked to the incident.

Locals say the atmosphere in Grangetown is tense this week, with some afraid to leave their homes. 

Allan Scott, a 78-year-old retired truck driver, traces much of the unrest back to drugs.

‘Drugs are the biggest culprit. It’s a way of life for them,’ he said. ‘Years ago, people would grass each other up to the police, but they don’t now.

‘People are too scared to go to the police. There is an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.’

One woman, a carer, said: ‘The car crash, the fire, the stabbing, it’s too much.

‘I don’t go out at night. I am too afraid, and I am also scared for my family. There are break-ins, violence, drugs.

‘It’s gang warfare. It’s gangs and drugs and a mixture of everything. I come out during the day, but at 6pm I lock the doors and I don’t leave the house again.’

Makai Saddington, one of the five killed in the Volkswagen, posted videos on TikTok of himself being chased by police and was awaiting trial for racially abusing and assaulting officers

Jakub Matusiak, another occupant of the car that hit the officers, also posted videos of himself driving recklessly

Close friends Theo Rae, left, and Cole Robert Worthy both died in the crash on Saturday

Michael Robert Cahill was one of the five in the VW Passat

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A home in the South Bank area of Middlesbrough was rammed by a car in the early hours of Thursday

Several cars were set ablaze by youths in a field near Haswell in County Durham on Thursday, purportedly during a balloon release for one of the crash victims

Another local added: ‘What’s gone on is just awful. It’s gang-related, and what happened to that little girl, who died in the fire, is just horrendous.

‘Where will this all end? I am worried now that things will escalate further, and there will be a full-blown riot.

‘Whatever the child’s family might have done, she didn’t deserve to die. It’s shocking, awful. There’s always been a problem with gangs in the area, but it’s largely hidden.

Police have been drafted in from across the country to back up the local force, which is one of the smallest in the country. 

Around 200 extra officers have been deployed from other forces, according to Redcar and Cleveland borough council leader Alec Brown, while police also raided a property in nearby Thornaby on Thursday. 

Reports suggest the town has been crying out for additional help in tackling violence for a number of years, with requests from the area’s police and crime commissioner for more funding from the Government falling on deaf ears.

Middlesbrough has a long history of deindustrialisation, and around half of its neighbourhoods rank among the most deprived in England.

The town has one of the highest crime rates in England, second only to central London, and in 2025-26, there were 21.7 homicides per million people, the highest figure recorded by any police force area in that reporting year.

However, the town’s mayor has robustly denied that it is ‘lawless’. 

Chris Cooke said police were doing an ‘absolutely sterling job to round up as many people as possible’, and has claimed crime is on the wane.

The Home Office has since said the force will receive a 3.7 per cent uplift in its funding this year.

Officially, police have made a total of 24 arrests in recent days targeting the wider crime group, including seven more on Friday.

Cleveland Police is yet to make a public statement on the raids earlier this morning. The Daily Mail has approached the force for comment.

Andrew Griffith has replaced Sir Mel Stride as shadow chancellor as part of Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s reshuffle of her top team.

Claire Coutinho, previously the shadow energy secretary, will replace Griffith as shadow business secretary amid the ongoing shake-up.

Badenoch is forming a new shadow cabinet before the party’s conference in October.

Dame Priti Patel has also been replaced as shadow foreign secretary by Tom Tugendhat.

Badenoch paid tribute to Sir Mel’s work as shadow chancellor saying he help the party rebuild economic credibility and become an effective opposition.

A senior Conservative source said: “Kemi is changing the way the Conservative Party approaches economic policy and creating a new economic leadership team for the next phase, focused on growth, higher living standards and fiscal credibility.”

Sir Mel, who was appointed to the role following Badenoch’s leadership election in 2024, described his time in the senior Tory role as a “great honour”.

“I am now looking forward to continuing to make a real contribution to the Conservative team in Parliament and beyond, to build and amplify our vision for Britain, from the back benches.”

New shadow chancellor Griffith said the Tories will deliver “an economic revolution” with lower taxes, Britain drilling again to bring energy costs down, slashing red tape and Labour’s Employment Rights Act.

“The Conservatives will always back the risk-takers and wealth creators who deliver growth, investment and jobs,” he said.

A senior Conservative source described Griffith as a “no-nonsense, pro-growth shadow chancellor with real business experience”.

Before he became MP for Arundel and South Downs in 2019, Griffith served as a top executive at Sky and as chairman of Just Eat.

Badenoch will also need to select a new shadow health secretary after Stuart Andrew confirmed he will be returning to the backbenches.

Dame Priti, who had been shadow foreign secretary since 2024, said she will take on a new international role strenghtening the Tories relationship with sister parties and centre-right movements abroad.

There are just 24 hours of the summer transfer to go, and Swansea City still have several loose ends to tie up before Tuesday night’s deadline.

There are at least two incomings in the pipeline, and their arrivals are likely to have a knock-on effect on players already in the building.

The club are hoping to tie up a move for Huddersfield Town midfielder Tom Iorpenda before Tuesday’s deadline, in a move believed to worth around £1m.

It’s understood the 21-year-old is unlikely to come in as a first team regular, and is instead seen more as a player for the future.

He’s set to be confirmed as a Swansea player well before Tuesday’s deadline, and could even be unveiled later on Monday.

His arrival further increases the midfield options available to Vitor Matos, who was keen on adding some depth there for much of the summer after losing Ethan Galbraith and Malick Yalcouye.

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Elijah Just and Stephen Eustaqiuo have also come in, and that wealth of options is likely to be one of the reasons Leo Walta looks set to be moved on.

A loan move to Los Angeles FC appears to be on the cards for the Finn, who has seen just six minutes of league action so far this season. It’s thought that deal is likely to contain an option to buy.

Out wide was another area Matos was keen to strengthen, and despite the captures of Moussa Yeo and Joseph Opoku, he has still looked for further options in the final throes of the window.

Highly-rated 17-year-old Jeremy Monga is poised to come in on a season-long loan, and that will inevitably spark further questions around the futures of Zeidane Inoussa and Florian Bianchini. It’s understood the club will listen to offers for both of them.

Ronald has also been linked with a move away, but is clearly higher up the pecking order at present. Even so, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see at least one of them move on.

Elsewhere, there had previously been a suggestion the club might look to add another centre-back to their ranks, despite recently completing a loan move for Sunderland’s Jenson Seelt.

Strasbourg’s Soumaila Coulibaly was a figure of interest, but that deal now looks unlikely to materialise, and it remains to be seen whether Swansea will move on to another target before tomorrow’s close.

As it happens, Strasbourg are one of several sides to have shown an interest in Swansea star striker Zan Vipotnik.

The Slovenian’s future has been the subject of speculation for most of the summer, with Hull City launching a £10m bid earlier this month.

An eight-year-old girl is in a stable condition while her mum has been released from hospital

Police have given an update into their investigation as a 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder following the death of a man in Dungannon.

A 61-year-old man’s body was found with his injured daughter at a property in the Lisnahull Road area of the Co Tyrone town on Saturday, August 29. A murder investigation has since been launched with a teenager being arrested.

An eight-year-old girl is reportedly in a stable condition in hospital while her 48-year-old mum who was injured has been released from hospital.

At a press conference in Dungannon today, Superintendent Peter Stevenson asked members of the public not to speculate regarding the incident and confirmed officers have been given an additional 36 hours to question the teenage suspect.

He said: “I am updating on the investigation following the death of a man in Dungannon and injuries to his wife and daugther on Saturday morning, August 29.

“Just after 10.55am, we received a report from a member of the public of an ongoing disturbance at a house n the Lisnahull Road area of Dungannon. Officers arrived a short time later and discovered the body of a 61-year-old man, his 48-year-old wife who had sustained non-life-threatening injuries and their severely injured eight-year-old daughter.

“Officers immidiately commenced first aid on the woman and girl. I am in no doubt that their quick actions gave the young girl a fighting chance at survival, she is now in a stable condition in hospital.

“A 16-year-old male has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder; he remains in custody at this time.

“I want to repeat that we do not believe that there is an ongoing risk to the public and at this stage we are not looking for anyone else in connection to this investigation.

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Donald Trump has defended his bitter trade war with Canada by arguing that America’s neighbor to the north is not a state and therefore not eligible for favorable terms.

The president has made repeated overtures to Canada about becoming the 51st state, which were angrily rejected and only served to whip up a mood of anti-Trump patriotic fervor across the border.

Now though, as the trade war between the two allies deepens, Trump appears keen to remind Canada that it is not part of the United States.

“We lose all of this tremendous money,” Trump told Fox News host Trey Gowdy Sunday. “They think they’re a state, but they’re not a state. Why should we be subsidizing Canada?”

Last week, the Trump administration placed new 50 percent tariffs on a range of Canadian exports after trade talks between the two countries collapsed, leading Prime Minister Mark Carney to respond in kind, pledging to mirror U.S. levies “dollar for dollar.”

Amid a war of words with Canadian officials, notably Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Trump announced he was renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America,” just as he renamed the Gulf of Mexico last year after falling out with America’s neighbor to the south.

Ford told ABC’s This Week Sunday the president’s aggressions were “the worst thing you could do for the American economy” and “absolutely backwards,” comparing the pettiness of his renaming stunt to “something out of Saturday Night Live.”

The president took to Truth Social Sunday to demand that all Canadian companies expecting to continue to do business with the U.S. reshore their headquarters within its borders.

“Many of them are Companies that moved out years ago due to stupid U.S. Leadership,” the president wrote. “When you move back, there are no TARIFFS!”

In a separate post, he argued that Canada, America’s second-largest trading partner, was also one of its worst, despite the two countries conducting almost $900 billion in cross-border business every year, according to the U.S. trade representative.

“I don’t want Canadian cars, I don’t want Canadian parts, I don’t want Canadian anything,” Trump fumed. “They’ve been ripping us off for decades, and it’s going to stop.”

The president has claimed to have revived the U.S. auto manufacturing sector since returning to power but the Big Three car giants continue to rely on imported parts from Canada, hence their exemption for previous tariff hikes.

Elsewhere in Trump’s Fox interview with Gowdy, he claimed there would be no Israel if he were not occupying the White House, attacked his detractors on Iran by claiming to be winning his war against the country “easily,” defended his decision to end joint military drills with South Korea and bragged about his golf game.

The village also developed into an important Roman town

The Romans had a stronghold in Cambridgeshire, but they also held occupied parts right on the county border. In neighbouring Essex, they also had a strong military presence. Particularly in the charming village of Great Chesterford, which borders Duxford, there used to be an important military Roman fort.

The fort is thought to be one of the earliest military sites in Roman Britain. It’s believed to date back to 43 AD during the campaign season of Aulus Plautius or later around the time of the Boudiccan revolt in 60 to 61 AD.

During its time, the fort would have been strategically important due to its position along an ancient trackway overseeing the Cam Valley, but also being positioned between two Roman roads.

Following excavations and aerial photographs being taken, the fort was discovered to measure around 36 acres. The first evidence that was found to link it back to the Roman times was a bronze trumpet mouthpiece, discovered in 1923.

The Roman military prominence was confirmed between 1948 and 1949 when a rescue operation during gravel quarrying discovered a military ditch. As well as having a Roman fort, Great Chesterford was a Roman town. The town featured a temple, defensive walls and extensive metalworking and trading activities.

Great Chesterford has much more on offer alongside its important Roman history. Visit Essex describes the area as a “quintessential English village with charming cottages”. Visitors can enjoy peaceful walks along Icknfield Way, an ancient pathway with beautiful views of the River Cam.

Great Chesterford is also a great commuter village, as people can easily access Cambridge and London by train, and the M11 is close by. There are also buses to easily get to Saffron Walden.

With the village being so close to London, houses are quite pricey. The average price of houses in Great Chesterford range between £520,000 and £605,000.

Michael Jackson’s daughter, Paris, recently revealed that she had undergone nine rounds of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to treat severe depression.

In the interview, Jackson said that although she felt the treatment “was working”, she said getting “shocked once a month for the rest of my life” wasn’t feasible for her.

ECT involves inducing a seizure by applying electricity to the head under general anaesthetic. Each series of ECT involves between six and 12 treatments over a period of two to four weeks.

ECT is primarily used for depression, but is also given to people diagnosed with schizophrenia, catatonia (a condition where people exhibit abnormal movements and behaviour) and bipolar disorder. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends that ECT is only used in extreme circumstances such as when a patient is suicidal and when other treatments have failed.

Some people think that ECT was abandoned long ago, but 2012 data estimated it was given to at least a million people annually, including about 2,500 in England according to 2019 estimates. Recipients are predominantly women and older people.

ECT has been controversial since it was first introduced in 1938, and remains debated today.

Does ECT work?

The gold standard for assessing a treatment’s effectiveness are randomised controlled trials. These directly compare a treatment against a placebo. In ECT studies, one group receives ECT, while the placebo group are given “sham ECT”, where they’re put under general anaesthesia but the electricity is withheld.

There have only been 11 placebo-controlled studies of ECT for depression. A review I co-authored in 2019 assessed the quality of those 11 studies. My colleagues and I found that all 11 were very small, were flawed in various ways and failed to comply with today’s methodological standards

Four of the 11 studies found ECT significantly superior to sham ECT at the end of treatment. Five found no difference between real ECT and sham ECT. Two studies found that psychiatrists reported a difference but patients did not. There was no robust evidence of effectiveness beyond the day of the last treatment – so there was no evidence of any long-term benefit of ECT.

Surprisingly, the most recent of these studies was in 1985. There have been none for 40 years. So, the honest answer to the question “does it work?” is, nearly 90 years after the first ECT, we really don’t know.

Some studies claim to show ECT performs better than other depression treatments, but a 2017 review of studies since 2009 found that in most of these studies the ECT group was also on antidepressants – making it hard to interpret the results. Most of these studies (87%) also had no follow-up data.

A 2023 study found that ECT is less effective than ketamine, which is also used for severe cases of depression, in the short-term – though the study did not provide any follow-up data for either treatment.

Like all ECT studies for depression since 1985, there was no placebo group so it was not possible to tell whether either treatment actually worked at all.

Some ECT proponents argue that it’s impossible to conduct ECT placebo studies because it’s unethical to withhold a treatment from vulnerable patients. However I argue that this positions them outside of evidence-based medicine, as the point of placebo studies is to discover whether a treatment does actually work.

Is ECT safe?

The American Psychiatric Association acknowledges that some people may experience memory problems that last months, years or permanently, after undergoing ECT.

A 2003 review also found that in a sample of 703 patients, persistent or permanent memory loss was reported by between 29% and 55% of patients.

A 2020 review of 16 studies found that in 15 of these papers, participants described memory problems after receiving ECT. This included complete erasure of some aspects of their memory, including events and experiences that happened before or immediately after having ECT.

Some participants also described not being able to remember specific life events, such as a child’s birthday or a loved one’s death. For others, memory loss was even more extensive – with one participant saying “the past 25 years are missing”. For most participants of these studies, the memory loss was considered permanent.

A 2023 report by the World Health Organization and the United Nations has stated that people offered ECT should be told of the potential short- and long-term risks it comes with – including memory loss and brain damage.

The largest ever international survey, of over 1,000 ECT recipients and family members, was recently conducted by three ECT recipients and three clinical psychologists, including myself. Our findings have been published in a series of research articles.

We found that while ECT helped some people, most respondents reported ECT either made no difference to mood or quality of life, or made matters worse.

Between 61% and 84% of ECT patients reported experiencing some form of memory loss, which lasted at least three years for most of them.

More than half of participants reported experiencing other side-effects from ECT, including emotional numbing, relationship problems and loss of independence.

Most believed the problems for which they had been given ECT were primarily caused by childhood adversities or recent stressors. But most were never asked about those issues before being prescribed ECT. If these issues had been identified and addressed through other forms of treatment (such as trauma therapy or cognitive behavioural therapy), ECT might not have been necessary.

Around 59% of participants said the information given to them about ECT’s efficacy and safety was “inadequate” – with only 17% being told about long-term memory loss.

We also found that women receive ECT more often than men and suffer greater adverse effects.

There are a range of effective alternatives to ECT and medication, whether someone is mildly depressed, severely depressed or suicidal, including cognitive behaviour therapy, trauma therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, mindfulness and family therapy.

No one treatment works for everyone. The important ingredients seem to be establishing a relationship in which the patient feels genuinely cared about, and then determining and addressing, one way or another, what is depressing them.

Clearly some people report that ECT helped them – and some are willing to accept side-effects such as memory loss if it means alleviating their symptoms. However, many patients also feel ECT did not help them.

The five nuns are named on an indictment containing 108 charges of alleged historic child abuse at Nazareth House

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A further hearing has been scheduled in the case of five nuns facing historic abuse charges involving a number of children.

Marie Docherty, 84, Mary Broderick, 84, Margaret McLafferty, 68, Kathleen McLean, 77, and Mary Doyle, 81, are named on an indictment which contains 108 charges.

The charges span 17 years with offences alleged to have taken place mainly at Nazareth House locations in Aberdeen and Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, between 1965 and 1982.

Among the allegations, the indictment details claims that Docherty forced a boy to eat spoiled food, beat him with a wooden stick, made him stand wearing soiled bedding, and locked him in a room.

A separate charge alleges that Docherty pressed a hot iron onto a teenage girl’s hand, repeatedly struck her on her head and body, and forced her to lie in bed.

Docherty is also alleged to have withheld food from another girl, causing her to faint, while soap was reportedly forced into the same girl’s mouth, making her vomit. The indictment further alleges that her head was then pushed into the vomit and she was made to consume it.

Further charges allege that Docherty, Broderick, and Doyle compelled certain children to kiss a corpse.

Additional allegations within the indictment include children being punched, struck, kicked, force-fed, and made to stand in soiled bedding or clothing, amongst other serious claims.

A preliminary hearing was held at the High Court in Glasgow on Monday before Lord Renucci, who has set a further preliminary hearing for January 22 2027. A provisional eight-week trial has been scheduled to begin on 30 March 2027 in Glasgow.

The accused have previously entered pleas of not guilty.