The debates about psychology versus biology as either the cause or the treatment of mental illness are probably as old as the topic itself: Actually, that’s not bad, the blind giant and the dwarf psychologist are often heard modern criticisms – the heavy-handed psychopharmacologist and the impotent psychotherapist [although the italicized adjectives are sometimes reversed]. […]
The STAR*D study came to us from the dawn of a new century – an outgrowth of a notion that one could improve the effectiveness of the antidepressants by creating an algorithm for trying different drugs when there was a treatment failure [Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression]. It had already been implemented in Texas […]
"My optimism is based partly on the extraordinary vitality of neuroscience and perhaps, even more important, on the emergence of remarkable new tools and technologies to identify the genetic risk factors for psychiatric disorders, to investigate the circuitry of the human brain, and to replace current animal models that have failed to predict efficacious new […]
So what pollen does to the brain is make things fuzzy and they get lost in the sulcus-scape. This is a thread I lost three weeks ago that I wanted to follow up on – an article by Dr. Steven Hyman, former Director of the NIMH [see Psychiatric Drug Development: Diagnosing a Crisis, whither the […]
For Preregistration in Fundamental Research Discover Blog By Neuroskeptic April 25, 2013 Recently, cognitive science postdoc Sebastiaan Mathôt wrote two pieces that raise questions about the idea of reforming scientific communication to involve preregistration of experiments: The Pros and Cons of Preregistration in Fundamental Research and also The Black Swan. Registration has long been a […]
After a long darkness, it seems like we’re getting a few things going the right way lately – successful lawsuits against Pharma’s improprieties, the AllTrials campaign, a growing awareness about the DSM-5 misadventures, more and more encouraging chatter, etc. Here’s some that really feels good – the results from this year’s American Medical Student Association […]
If you steal something from yourself, is it plagiarism? I said all of this before [my old Greek…], but I guess I want to say it again: Sometimes an idea comes along that sticks in the mind like it belongs there – like there was already a space patiently awaiting its arrival. After that, it […]
This is an excellent piece of work. I’ve quoted the parts I need to offer an alternative explanation for the facts, but the article and it’s explanation deserve a complete read. It’s a big piece of history: Does Psychiatry Need Science? The New Yorker by Gary Greenberg 04/23/2013 In 1886, Pliny Earle, then the superintendent […]
And you get to learn some amazing things on twitter, like: