Posted by med_empowered on December 6, 2005, at 2:06:38
In reply to Here's what I don't get!!!, posted by Michael Bell on December 6, 2005, at 0:42:55
There was this philosopher--Kuhn, I think--who made an interesting observation: science doesn't progress in a linear sense. Its not as if one day scientists think X, then there's better data, and they move onto Y. Rather, science has a very real orthodox, idealogical component to it; X is the accepted idea b/c of data and outside factors--in psychiatry, I imagine a lot of these would be money related, like money to research certain compounds or money spent pushing certain drugs. Then idea Y is accepted, and its not an *evolution* its a *revolution*. So..right now, the most popular anti-anxiety compounds are antidepressants, with the antipsychotics gaining a lot of ground. As the focus shifts more towards GABA compounds, you'll see the data change, too; suddenly there'll be interest in augmenting old therapies, reviving the benzos, etc. So..instead of layering knowledge, building a foundation of data, its more of a complete "paradigm shift"--a fundamental change in the way an issue or problem is understood (and, therefore, dealt with).
poster:med_empowered
thread:585979
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051203/msgs/585988.html