Posted by JohnL on May 5, 2000, at 4:35:40
In reply to Re: Shorter trials: John L , posted by Cam W. on May 4, 2000, at 7:04:44
Cam,
I know. I'm aware of Jensen's skeptics. After all, there was no bigger skeptic than me. My skepticisms were the same as everyone has been mentioning in these threads. Believe me, I understand.
When I was calling Jensen a new age nutcase, a quack, crap, etc....one of his patients calmly and humbly suggested I read his book or talk to him first. I humbly pass on the same suggestion. When all one knows is the general concepts as summarized by some nobody (me)--in the absence of greater detail--it is very easy and tempting to be skeptical.
Though I could spend pages and pages blowing holes in every skeptical stance encountered, I will merely repeat the most important thing. That is,...Jensen's methods do NOT fly in the face of what we know about physiology. It appears to at first on the surface, but it doesn't. There isn't an explicit mechanism of action missing in his practice, but rather one missing in mainstream practice.
Jensen--as Head of Psychiatry--is no stranger to mainstream psychiatry. He's been in there for decades. He is merely attempting to answer questions that mainstream psychiatry has not 'adequately' anwered for him.
Why do some patients respond quickly? Why some slowly? Why some not at all? Why do many get worse instead? Why residual symptoms? Is there something else besides receptor downregulation going on? Why 70% success rates? Why settle for 50% reduction of symptoms as measurement criteria? Why do different patients with identical symptoms respond 100% to drugs of totally different classes? He was not satisfied with the answers mainstream psychiatry provided. He was not interested in finding answers to gain praise or scientific acknowledgement. Rather he wanted to get patients well. That's all.
That's his passion--not merely his career--that's what he does. I doubt seriously he is about to compromise his office time with patients to go out and 'prove' his ways to the world. I think he could care less what others do in THEIR hospitals, he just wants extraordinary results in his own. And the fact is, he is getting them. Regardless of what me or you or anyone else thinks, we can't argue with results. His patients are happy. Nearly all of them were failed by traditional psychiatry and conventional physicians. The proof's in the pudding, so to speak.
The one most important concept to grasp is that his methods do NOT fly in the face of what we know. They instead add on and enhance. It's not an either/or proposition. His methods and traditional psychiatry are married, not divorced. They go together, not in opposition. Without reading the book, it would be way to lengthy here (already is) to explain why.
I think I do not do a good job of communicating on this topic. I would probably best stop trying. All I can say is, read the book. Then be skeptical or not.
JohnL
poster:JohnL
thread:31785
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000429/msgs/32368.html