Posted by JohnL on May 4, 2000, at 1:29:07
In reply to Re: Shorter trials: believe it! , posted by AndrewB on May 3, 2000, at 10:54:29
> John,
>
> You are an excellent spokesperson for Dr. Jensen’s methods. If you are not a PR professional already, you should consider such work!
>
> I did a Medline search. I could find no evidence to support Dr. Jensen’s claim of a correlation between an initial improvement (or non response) and a long term AD response. This idea of one’s first reaction being the true reaction is so simple it seems naive to think that it wouldn’t have been confirmed by now. After all, it seems diagnostic criteria that would allow for faster trials has been something of a holy grail of the psychiatric community. Dr. Jensen’s ideas still need to undergo rigorous testing before they can be separated from the long parade of various fallacious claims made by the ambitious and self promoting. But there is some truth in most everything and I wonder if there is a subpopulation of treatment resistant depressives who, because they respond quickly to antidepressants, would be well served by Jensen’s protocol.
>
> Best wishes, as always,
>
> AndrewBToo funny Andrew. lol. I didn't realize I was sounding like a spokesperson until you pointed it out. I'm embarassed. That wasn't at all what I was attempting to do. Jensen isn't even my own physician. He isn't the one that got me well. Personal application of his methods did though.
It's true we need empirical evidence to backup any new theory. Theory...that's an important issue here. After all, everything we know about psychiatry is theory. There aren't any facts. Even the best empirical evidence we have of any one theory suggests about a 70% success ratio in reducing symptoms by 50%. That's not exactly something to be embracing or doing handstands over. But it is the best we have, and the tendency over time is to accept longstanding theories as facts, even though they aren't.
Just a few centuries ago everybody knew the earth was flat. Then some innovative quack named Columbus came along and challenged the theory. What was accepted as fact for so long soon became a point of humor. Don't get me wrong, I'm not likening Columbus to Jensen at all. Not even close. But it kind of makes the point that other less known and less accepted theories sometimes do prove to have merit. And just a decade ago it was fact that ulcers were caused by stress and/or the wrong foods. All kinds of behavioral programs and diets changes were the treatments. And they worked. But today, a mere decade or so later, we know ulcers are caused by a specific bacteria. They are aggravated by stress and food. But the root cause is bacteria. And the treatment is an antibiotic, with or without behavioral or diet changes. Just another example of a longstanding theory challenged--one assumed to be fact by empirical evidence.
I think I'm trying to make the point that I am not a spokesperson for Jensen, but rather a spokesperson for any new theory that works. Jensen's or anyone else's. Doesn't matter. If it's new and it works, I'm all ears. In Jensen's case, it's not as if he has built some theory around a few isolated cases. Not even. His theories are based on hundreds of patients who achieved excellent results in his office by way of his approach...after being failed by multiple doctors and drugs. These were the kind of patients we see here a lot. Nearly 100% get excellent results in 8 visits or less. Usually 2 or 3. Any theory with those kinds of results is welcome in my book. Even if it is limited at this time to one doctor's office. But the fact that it is now being studied in some medical schools is promising. Hopefully the generations of doctors 5 and 10 years from now will have a different approach and better results than the ones today.
Geeezz, I sound like a spokesperson again, don't I? lol. Hey, I just love to see people get well. And I really don't care how that is achieved. Whatever works. For the time being, there is one little ole doctor's office in California where a lot of longtime sufferers are getting well, by the hundreds every year. I wish I knew a local doctor with that kind of performance.
JohnL
poster:JohnL
thread:31785
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000429/msgs/32196.html