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"From Inconvenient Truth to Urgent Opportunity"

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
Nothing specifically about ME/CFS.

In my first Observer column as President of APS, I wrote about the maturation of neuroscience and explored what’s next in psychological science. This month’s guest columnist is Thomas R. Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health. Below, Insel outlines the novel approach NIMH is adopting in its efforts to understand and treat mental illness, and highlights the importance of psychological science in this endeavor. –Elizabeth A. Phelps

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2013/october-13/from-inconvenient-truth-to-urgent-opportunity.html

I just find it interesting partly as a critique of psychology/psychiatry e.g.

Why have we not seen advances on par with other areas of medicine? Some would point to stigma, lack of access, and lack of funding for mental health services. These are critical contributory factors, but we also need to admit that our understanding of brain and behavior remains far behind our understanding of cardiovascular function, cancer biology, or infectious diseases. Without a deeper understanding and better treatments, increasing services may not reliably improve outcomes. We need better science as well as better service.

and

This is a years-long effort, but our goal is to have a diagnostic system that will use many levels of analysis, from genomics to social, to provide more personalized and potentially more successful approaches to treatment. Therapeutics also needs to be transformed. We need better medical and psychosocial treatments. Most clinical trials have focused on proving the efficacy of a new medication or psychosocial intervention. The inconvenient truth here is that, as with diagnostics, we just don’t know enough. The lack of targets for new medications has led most pharmaceutical companies to abandon this area. While we have seen innovations in psychosocial treatments, we still cannot predict who will respond best to these interventions, we do not understand the mechanism of action, and we have little evidence for the required dose or duration.

 

peggy-sue

Senior Member
Messages
2,623
Location
Scotland
I like the mention of "Brain and behaviour", particularly in conjunction with neuroscience.
Can we have this instead of psychology, please?

It's about time that out-dated, dualsitic, airy-fairy-theory driven subject got binned.

peggy-sue 2(i) Hons. BSc. Psychology.:p