This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I only vaguely remember, this opinion formed back when I first discovered Scott which would have been during Trump's original run when most reputable sources of information died.
Probably anything to do with Insomnia, hypnotics, and especially melatonin. That line of research and guidelines is hideously complicated and in the U.S. at least has no clear consensus.
Any stance is wrong lol.
Hmm.. I actually went into depth on melatonin recently for a journal club presentation, and looked into the papers Scott cited. It seems quite robust to me, at least the core claims that 0.3 mg is the most effective dose, though I don't know how that stacks up with current higher dose but modified release tablets (those are popular in the NHS).
Basically there's a lot of evidence and belief it does nothing at all so that the dose doesn't matter. This is countered by people who believe it works great in at least certain settings (ex: "well for general outpatient management no, but for acute crisis in mental hospital/inpatient ward..."). Some people will also argue that you need spaced dosing for efficacy and that that is more important for dosing.
Fundamentally it is extremely hard to do insomnia research because getting the right population slice is challenging. Pursuant to that, it may also be culturally dependent and a million other annoying things.
Stick with what the research YOU find and YOUR attendings say (with the later being important to wellness lol).
If you look at say Trazodone we have a lot of papers and guidelines in the U.S. saying it doesn't do shit.....but then some newer papers saying it's doing some weird stuff and thats the cause of the subjective improvement in symptoms. It is a mess and you'll see a variety of strong and seemingly evidence based opinions.
Saw your PM will reply when I get a chance, I think that needs more attention.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link