Yang Yongxin is a Chinese psychiatrist who advocated and practiced a highly controversial form of electroconvulsive therapy without anesthesia or muscle relaxants as a cure for video game and Internet addiction in adolescents.
28 Facts About Yang Yongxin
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Yang Yongxin treated 3,000 adolescents before the practice was prohibited by the Chinese Ministry of Health.
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Yang Yongxin was born in June 1962 in the Chinese city of Linyi, Shandong province.
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Yang Yongxin graduated from Yishui Medical School, a vocational school in Yishui, Shandong, with a degree in Clinical Medicine in 1982.
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Yang Yongxin was assigned by the state to the Fourth Hospital of Linyi, where he specialized in treating schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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Yang Yongxin wrote a series of columns on popular psychology for the local newspaper during his tenure at Linyi Mental Hospital, although his critics alleged the columns were paid advertisements for the hospital.
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On 29 September 1997, Yang Yongxin received the honor of becoming a Top 10 Underage Protector in Shandong for his work treating Internet addiction disorder in teenagers.
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Yang Yongxin established an "Internet-addiction camp" inside the Fourth Hospital in 2006 and began practicing ECT.
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Yang Yongxin was awarded the Top Ten Outstanding Citizens for Protecting the Minors of Shandong by the Shandong provincial government for the therapy in 2007.
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In 2008, Yang Yongxin became the director of the Internet Addiction Treatment Center.
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Yang Yongxin caused widespread controversy in China when its most viewed television channel, the state-run China Central Television, aired a special about Yang Yongxin's treatment center in July 2008.
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Yang Yongxin's critics revealed some of his most controversial practices, which led to the mainstream media abandoning their praise of his treatment center.
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Nevertheless, Yang Yongxin went on to win a State Council grant for excellence in medical science in February 2009.
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The report alleged that Yang Yongxin had received CNY 81 million from his treatment center.
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Yang Yongxin promoted electroconvulsive therapy as a means to remedy such disorders.
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Reports show Yang Yongxin managing his patients in a military manner, encouraging patients to act as his informants and threatening resisting patients with ECT, which former patients claimed he used solely as a means of torturing them.
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Yang Yongxin warned patients against asking their parents to take them home, another offense punishable by ECT.
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Reports further accuse Yang Yongxin of using the therapy as a means of torture.
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Yang Yongxin stated that admitted patients were shocked only a few times during their treatment.
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Yang Yongxin maintained that he was properly licensed in performing ECT, and that his treatment program was fully compliant with Chinese laws and regulations regarding clinical psychology.
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Reports state that Yang Yongxin applied electric shock to patients' hands, a non-indicated usage that is said to produce more pain, as a punitive measure.
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Yang Yongxin jumped from a second-floor window at the treatment center.
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The machine Yang Yongxin used for ECT treatments is a DX-IIA ECT device, manufactured by a Shanghai pharmaceutical company from 1996 to 2000.
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Chinese health regulation had stopped the device from being manufactured since 2000, and reports brought into question whether Yang Yongxin acquired these devices illegally.
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In 2006, Yang Yongxin claimed to have invented a formula of Chinese traditional medicine that is effective in treating Internet addiction.
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Yang Yongxin applied for a patent for his formula, although the Chinese State Intellectual Property Office has not responded to his application.
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Yang Yongxin's published "diagnostic test" is criticized as remarkably lax, as almost any choices on the test will be diagnosed as Internet addiction.
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The source noted the hospital's introduction to Yang Yongxin said he is good at "curing Internet Addiction and personality abnormality, preventing adolescence's dangerous behavior, fixing family problems", despite the controversies.