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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   26051 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 29, 2024

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Better? As far as I can tell, yes.

Unless there's some identifiable treatable organic cause for the anxiety, mood or personality disorder might the patient improve just as well be guarding against and rebuking the demons of pride, envy, sloth, lust, etc? Especially if most of the available therapy interventions perform as well as each other.

We do have identifiable organic causes for many psychiatric illnesses we did not, within living memory, once have. Subtle and variable ones, but what can other answer can you expect when asking a question that involves most psychiatric diseases under the sun?

I fail to see how the latter follows at all. It's not like therapy is the only tool in the arsenal, psychiatrists are not psychologists, we dole out meds too and once again, they work, even if some of them aren't as effective as could be desired.

Psychiatrists do dole out meds. But the efficacy (and why) is questionable. I read that exercise seems like it results in a better outcome.

Are you a psychiatrist? If so, that obviously gives you special insight but also clearly a bias.

I just went to the trouble of citing a million studies and meta analyses on the matter, what else can I add that isn't anecdotal? Exercise certainly helps, it's far from the only thing that helps. Antidepressants aren't very good drugs, but they beat placebo at the least.

Are you a psychiatrist? If so, that obviously gives you special insight but also clearly a bias.

I've been accepted into psychiatry residency in the UK, starting in a few months. But it's always been my penchant, so consider me the least biased I could possibly be, or at the least I wouldn't have chosen that subject if I felt it was fraudulent.

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