Dear Colleagues,
After serving 13 years as Director for the National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], Thomas R. Insel, M.D., will step down effective November 1, 2015…
While we conduct a national search for a new NIMH Director, Bruce Cuthbert, Ph.D., will serve as Acting Director…
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Institutes of Health
New York TimesBy BENEDICT CAREYSEPT. 15, 2015… Dr. Insel, a brain scientist who made his name studying the biology of attraction and pair bonding, was the longest-serving director since Dr. Robert H. Felix, the agency’s founder, stepped down in 1964. Appointed in 2002, his tenure spanned four presidential terms, during which he honed an easygoing political persona and an independent vision of the agency’s direction. He steered funding toward the most severe mental disorders, like , and into basic biological studies at the expense of psychosocial research, like new talk therapies.
He was outspoken in defense of this path, at one point publicly criticizing establishment psychiatry for its system of diagnosis, which relies on observing behaviors instead of any biological markers. His critics – and there were plenty – often noted that biological psychiatry had contributed nothing useful yet to diagnosis or treatment, and that Dr. Insel’s commitment to basic science was a costly bet, with uncertain payoff…
… In his statement, Dr. Insel said the final details of his move to Google were not firm. The team is developing advanced technologies for better detection and prevention of illness, he wrote, and “I am joining the team to explore how this mission can be applied to mental illness”…
Besides being too controlling, Insel is a "breakthrough freak." He seems to go for the "shiny objects." So "personalized medicine" comes along and we hear about that. Then we hear about "neural circuits." One after another, we’ve moved from potential breakthrough to potential breakthrough as if there’s some over-riding plan, but we never quite found out what it was. All we really knew was that whatever it was, it came under the heading, "clinical neuroscience." He went to medical school and did a psychiatry residency, but he never practiced medicine and that has been apparent throughout his tenure. He has had the perspective of a recent graduate throughout his tenure at the NIMH – unseasoned by the experience of real-life medical practice. In the words of my current neighbors, "book larnin’". So I’m relieved at his leaving and immediately worried about what’s coming next.
But that’s not the only worry. He’s going to Google, a big resource that’s capable of bringing off about anything they set their mind to do. And I’m worried that Insel will point them in the direction of screening for mental illness. In my mind, that means putting more people on even more psychiatric drugs they don’t need. He’s a nut case for "the global burden of depression" and other such buzz phrases. Those ideas plus Google are a recipe for some real problems.
And the term “brain scientist” is weird for me. What exactly is that? Do we have heart scientists? Lung scientists? Liver scientists? And I could go on and on. How about “penis scientists”? 🙂
Scary. But Google is really smart. Maybe they’ll find a good place for someone with clout who likes shiny new objects.