Table 3.

Key themes and subthemes identified from focus groups indirectly relating toECT

Theme	Subtheme	Key quote
Resource limitation	Professionals Infrastructure	“We are not able to give unmodified ECT. And again we have to beg for anesthetists.” “We need to improve the resources so that we can give those kinds of services.” “People from remote places are visiting faith healers. First, they have to get the proper psychiatrist; That would be our first objective.”
	Personal finance	‘”In many private set-ups, if you had an anesthetist for the ECT, the expenses or cost of ECT will also be too much.”
Non- medical models of mental health	Drafting legislation	“The Act was discussed here before going to Parliament. This draft was discussed, and there were a lot of protests. But it was dismissed by giving the reference of the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.” “… Psychiatrists feel that their concerns, their viewpoints, have not been given as much importance as the views and opinions of other stakeholders like patients or care-givers and nongovernmental organizations.”
	MHRBs	“Psychiatrists do not have proper representation on any committee, on any board.” “Medical decisions should be left to medical people.”
	Patients	“They [nongovernmental organizations and the anti-ECT lobby] are strongly against ECT. They have created lots of anger about ECT and these patients and families are rejecting ECT.”

ECT - Electroconvulsive therapy, MHRB – Mental Health Review Board