One of the saddest things about being a public academic is the regular emails from people who are clearly in the midst of a manic/psychotic episode. The fact that science has very little to offer them is an absolute shame. I think this book is critical reading to understand why. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137516022
@Russpoldrack "science has very little to offer" people in a psychotic or manic state?? Can you clarify what you mean? I doubt you mean science had no role in developing the currently available effective treatments, because that position would be hard to argue.
@kjbinstl There certainly have been science-fueled advances (e.g. ketamine) and we need a lot more of those. But the current treatments fail for many people, and their side effects are often almost as bad as the illness. And I would say that our scientific understanding of these diseases remains stunted (in part for reasons that this book lays out), making it hard to obtain the kind of progress that has been seen in other areas of medicine.
@Russpoldrack
I can see most of those comments. Yes, we need better. Need cures. But overall it seems an excessively glum view. Even now we can help the great majority of patients, and most often can do so with tolerable side effects. We know a lot about the genetics of these complex traits. We do better for treatment of bipolar disorder than for, say, dystonia.
