Don't believe at face value any stats given in the media about anything to do with public health. As a stats hobbyist, I love to turn upside-down their conclusions. Today, the Post had an article decrying that 50% of depressed patients were not helped by anti-depressants. Upside down, that reads "50% of depressed people's lives were saved by anti-depressants." I think it is pretty great that half of depressed, and perhaps suidical, people got their lives back due to big pharma.
Leonardo | Homepage | 03.23.06 - 8:47 pm | #

I think the whole industry of diagnosing "mental illnesses" is sick and maybe needs its own DMS classification. It certainly serves pharmaceutical companies and other therapeutic "helpers" to tell people that they are sick and need drugs and some sort of "treatment", but yet the evidence that these folks couldn't do better on their own without being told that there is something wrong with them (DSM books, social mores about what happiness and success are in our society) seems rather unexplored. I mean proving that someone's chemicals are off and that medicating them will make them feel better is hardly a worthwhile study- who doesn't feel better after self-medication...a shot of whiskey does me good from now and again and I imagine has been the case since the beginning of time. However that isn't alleviating the very triggers for the feelings people try to self-medicate from experiencing. Maybe just makes them more zombie-like and happy-looking all of the time - who wants that everyday? Is that all being alive means? I'd argue no.
For example, symptoms of depressed individuals in the US may not appear abnormal in other countries. And I am not opposed to a person deciding they want to end their own life. It certainly may hurt their family and friends emotionally, but one's life and liberty to be alive or not should be left to that individual. We're not asked to be born, but why should we ask permission to give up our life? Sounds morbid, but it is a philosophical question...

I think the turning stats upside-down idea is one that should be embraced more often. I agree that often people just accept whatever numbers are thrown at them without thinking through what the alternative stats mean. This is how I look at stats in general...it is all how you spin it.
Minerva Oblongata | 03.24.06 - 10:49 am | #

Leonardo, 50 percent is about the same number of depressed patients that is helped by a 3 times a day 30 minute jogging regimen, an only barely better than the number that is helped by a placebo.
Illuminatus | 04.05.06 - 1:41 pm | #

Oops, I meant 3 times a week.
Illuminatus | 04.05.06 - 1:42 pm | #