tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post6685381836349863821..comments2024-03-28T17:44:11.289+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Treatment v management in psychiatry - tranquillizers and antipsychotics (from Conrad M Swartz and Edward Shorter)Bruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-31106922491852762722013-01-05T05:07:39.817+00:002013-01-05T05:07:39.817+00:00@Donald
David Healy's Psychiatric Drugs Expla...@Donald<br /><br />David Healy's Psychiatric Drugs Explained is excellent - it is the set book for my course at university. <br /><br />I have written about delusions<br /><br />http://www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton/delusions.html<br /><br />With respect to miracles and revelations - they do not have a formally different status than other beliefs about the world - belief in miracles and revelation is natural and spontaneous. It is the ruling out of m and r as possibilities which is weird and unnatural - and probably pathological in the sense that groups which deny ms and rs have sub-replacement chosen-fertility.<br /><br />In a biological sense, the difference between a pathological delusion and a true belief would relate to adaptiveness. This is not a matter of being happy, but a matter of reproduction - and it can be assessed only on average and in specific contexts: thus a pathological delusion would reduce fitness (which is reproductive success). <br /><br />Of course it might be difficult or impossible to trace the causal pathway from belief to reproductive success - especially given that there is so much 'noise' from chance and between-individual differences.<br /><br />But it is easy to show that religiousness (traditional orthodox religiousness) is necessary (but not sufficient) to human reproductive success - and from that that belief in miracles and revelations is not pathological (and that modern spirituality and atheism and materialism ARE pathological).Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-70163357894388554952013-01-04T23:45:09.098+00:002013-01-04T23:45:09.098+00:00Any good intro texts for a medical student? How do...Any good intro texts for a medical student? How do you approach the issue of delusions/psychosis and miracles/revelations as a Christian bot personally and to colleagues (would you even bother trying to convince a secular colleague on distinguishing the two?)?Donaldnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-27317179352858968912013-01-04T15:07:53.333+00:002013-01-04T15:07:53.333+00:00@Donald: In essence, Freud was a fraud. Best ignor...@Donald: In essence, Freud was a fraud. Best ignored (unless you are an historian). Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-23034584584725165322013-01-04T14:56:54.783+00:002013-01-04T14:56:54.783+00:00What do you make of Freud in relation to modern ps...What do you make of Freud in relation to modern psychiatry?Donaldnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-60474776305308325672013-01-02T19:23:06.463+00:002013-01-02T19:23:06.463+00:00Ahoy, Bruce. Given your remarks about Who Become ...Ahoy, Bruce. Given your remarks about Who Become Scientists Nowadays, I thought this might interest you.<br />http://www.jbc.org/content/278/7/4369.longdeariemenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-4549688981868663242013-01-02T18:18:50.798+00:002013-01-02T18:18:50.798+00:00@d &S - The short answer is: ECT/ electroshock...@d &S - The short answer is: ECT/ electroshock.<br /><br />As the authors point out, ECT is unusual in being both the first treatment to be discovered for melancholia and psychotic depression, and also by far the best. Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-34449750700347138372013-01-02T18:04:44.452+00:002013-01-02T18:04:44.452+00:00So where do you take this, then, Bruce? Antipsycho...So where do you take this, then, Bruce? Antipsychotics aren't a "cure", sure. What's a better idea?Samsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-4112593770507864682013-01-02T17:07:44.078+00:002013-01-02T17:07:44.078+00:00What treatments are there that work?What treatments are there that work?deariemenoreply@blogger.com