Brandon, Paul K" [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> wrote, "I think that Mike Williams' point is (at least it should be) that we should assume that a treatment is not effective until it has been proven to be effective. In the case of psychiatric treatment, this is a high hurdle because of the difficulty of carrying out a double blind (or even single blind) experimental design."
No, that was definitely NOT Mike's point. I was particularly appalled by Mike's statement that "ECT is pure behavior therapy: 'Mr. Smith, we understand that you are unhappy. We will continue to induce seizures until you feel better.' After a few seizures, Mr. Smith endorses positive change on the Beck Depression Inventory. The psychiatrist stops inducing seizures. ECT is a punishment condition." ECT has been extensively studied for many years and the idea that it is a "punishment condition" has been thoroughly debunked. The most obvious objection to that idea is the the fact that modern ECT uses general anesthesia. The patient wakes up and doesn't know whether or not the ECT has been administered. Besides, if it was such a punishment, a painful shock should be even more effective than a seizure. Its not. And "eyes open" ECT (much scarier) should be more effective than ECT done under anesthesia. It's not. And bilateral ECT, with it's severe retrograde amnesia, should be less efffective than unilateral ECT with its negligible retrograde amnesia. It's not. Mike's diatribe sounds more like a humanistic harangue than an informed opinion. And while we're on the topic, would Mike be as critical of "talk therapies" than of biological therapies? Talk therapies are, of course, subject to most of the same criticisms that he levels at biological therapies. But that discussion gets even more interesting since one can argue that talk therapies ARE a placebo and that its practitioners are the "institutionalized dispensers of placebos" ) per Marvin Gross in "The Psychological Society." And once said, is that a bad thing? Placebo effects are real, powerful, and have a clear biological basis. I'm just sayin'............... Ed Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Psychology West Chester University of Pennsylvania http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/jam.htm Husband, father, grandfather, bluegrass fiddler & biopsychologist............... in approximate order of importance --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=12835 or send a blank email to leave-12835-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
