Seasoned Psychiatrists(with a conscious) are frustrated with the currently horrid cure rates
Most of the comments here at least touch on the ineffectiveness of current treatments. As does the blog post. To which I respond with two words:
BIG DATA
I don't think individual doctors, as well intentioned as they might be, can really make a difference in the big picture. But doing some serious data mining might help. Throw everything into the mix:
people's age, gender, genetic background
their previous and current environment
previous treatment successes and failures
their self-reported moods
1000x etc etc etc
What can analyzing that data tell us? What works better than SSRIs?
Medicine is in the stone ages compared to e.g. VLSI design. Chips have literally billions of transistors on them, and they work reliably at multi-GHz frequencies for many years. That's both science and engineering at its finest.
But psychiatry? It's a little bit of book knowledge, a little bit of intuition, a little bit of apprenticeship, and a lot of frustration.
The guy seems quite ambivalent. You'd think he would still be a starry eyed idealist, but he's not ... after only two years of residency.
The thing is, "What works better than SSRIs?" is already known. The post's author had an idea, and the analysis of ~50,000 reviews (not very big data) confirms it by a large margin. SSRIs are not prescribed because they work best, but because they are considered best compromise of many factors including efficacy and safety.
Fascinating reading that, especially that doctors and patients see things completely differently, especially relating to the older class of antidepressents.
There was a post, a few days ago, about biological lab studies. The post had something to do with errors in biological studies, and how some researchers will redue lab results, until they get the results they want?
I can't recall the post, but in the comment section someone suggested, 'How about a Database that would include all studies/results; irrelevant of the outcome. Just how all good science results should be presented?' Could you imagine a database that researchers could go to, and find honest results for their particular area of interest? Honest data--free for all to see. Open Source?
Right now we have some data bases, but they are not easily accessed, and even though most some have a peer review process; we need a better system?
Will we ever get a better system? I don't know? Yes, studies are expensive, but why do I feel if money wasn't the number One concern; we would be so much farther along?
Growing up I viewed medical researchers with holy reverence!
Now--I picture a bunch of MBA's basically telling the employees(highly educated) what they want, or what drug/procedure/devise will make the company the most money?
I've taken so many expensive drugs that were basically pushed through the system. I had no idea about "cherry picking" the best studies, excluding early placebo responders, manipulating the data--to the point of fraud, outright double blind, placebo controlled fraud; of course hidden and presented in a way most professionals didn't even realize they were being basically lied too.
I don't know the best way to cure, or research disease, but hiding behind "well it's all we have"; I find infuriating!
So yes, I am too jaded to offer solutions. I probally threw the baby out with the bath water.(I am open to honest--agenda free advice though?). Big Data--yes! Government paid research--yes. Honest privately funded research--yes, but honest!
Big Pharma essentially lying to doctors, and patients--No.
When I was younger, I walked away from a profession that was based on placebo, and really bad science. I walked because of two reasons--one personal, and the other was I just couldn't be a hypocrite! In retrospect, it probally was not the best career move, and I don't recommend doing what I did, but integrity, and morals are all I really cared about at the time. I will die a poor loser, but I can honestly say, I never took advantage of the poor, or uninformed.
Most of the comments here at least touch on the ineffectiveness of current treatments. As does the blog post. To which I respond with two words:
I don't think individual doctors, as well intentioned as they might be, can really make a difference in the big picture. But doing some serious data mining might help. Throw everything into the mix: What can analyzing that data tell us? What works better than SSRIs?Medicine is in the stone ages compared to e.g. VLSI design. Chips have literally billions of transistors on them, and they work reliably at multi-GHz frequencies for many years. That's both science and engineering at its finest.
But psychiatry? It's a little bit of book knowledge, a little bit of intuition, a little bit of apprenticeship, and a lot of frustration.
The guy seems quite ambivalent. You'd think he would still be a starry eyed idealist, but he's not ... after only two years of residency.