Posted by JohnL on May 6, 2000, at 3:45:23
In reply to Re: Shorter trials: Scott , posted by SLS on May 5, 2000, at 10:22:26
Scott,
I understand your skepticism very well. It all makes sense to me. You ask very good questions. Been there. Done that. I know where you're coming from.
I think I have done a poor job of communicating about anything to do with Dr Jensen. It's really cumbersome to try to go into detail of every general concept we've discussed here. After all, it took him a book to accomplish that. There is a simple logical obvious answer to each one of your concerns. All I can say is what someone else told me when I was in the devil's advocate shoes....read the book. If you don't want to spend $30 on it, it'll probably be in libraries soon. Unless you're really interested in adding to your knowledge of psychiatry and medications, just forget it for the time being. I should note here that the book has a lot more in it than just the details of concepts I've mentioned. It has a whole section devoted specifically for the physician. For those general readers who are well-versed in the technical side of medications, that section of the book alone is well worth the price in laying out all kinds of interesting information on different medications that can't be found anywhere else that I've seen.
Ever heard of Hagop Akiskal. He--unlike Jensen--is a highly esteemed world renowned psychiatrist/researcher/author. Other pdocs have referred to him as being 'da man', the guru of psychiatry. He has a book called 'Dysthymia, The Spectrum of Chronic Depression'. I bought that book. The entire book says basically one thing...there is a lot of overlap between different psychiatric illnesses. There is hardly any down to earth useful information that a local physician or patient can use in their own treatment. It's just a bunch of theory stuff, with disappointingly little detail on medications, depression chemistries, why this, why that.
On the other hand, there's this little ole unknown pdoc in some small California town who wrote a book that costs less but is jam packed with stuff and details that are immediately useable by other physicians and patients. It's more practicality stuff than it is theory stuff. Having read both books with an open mind, the one from the highly esteemed researcher is nearly useless. The one from an unknown nobody very very useful.
Several of us have expressed skepticism because Jensen isn't making efforts to get his methods into mainstream psychiatry for critical review. That just isn't true. His book is being used in medical schools. How many of yours and my doctors have accomplished that? Hmmm? And he wrote a book, half of it devoted to phsycians. Yours and my doctors done that? Hmmm. And he has a website anyone can visit. Yours and my doctors? Hmmm. Jensen's contributions are readily accessible to all. It's not his fault someone hasn't been made aware of his contributions. It's their own fault for freely choosing to ignore information that has been made readily accessible.
Anyway, once again I'm going way too long again here. All I can say is, read the book.
JohnL
poster:JohnL
thread:31785
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000429/msgs/32508.html