Mood Swings

A psychiatrist surveys the mind and the wider world.

by Dr. Nassir Ghaemi

Where are the new ideas?

By Dr. Nassir Ghaemi on November 8, 2010 in Mood Swings

I recently met a colleague who had been on the Harvard faculty for about twenty years. He finally left about two years ago to go to a state university psychiatry program in the mid-Atlantic region. "I came to Harvard thirty years ago to find an intellectual environment. I found it only after I left." Read More

You followed in the footsteps of Elliot Aronson

Submitted by Bill W. on November 8, 2010 - 6:52pm.

He left early in his career for a more welcoming, open environment- and the world is a better place for it.

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Academic Malaise

Submitted by SteveM on November 9, 2010 - 7:24am.

Nassir,

Your points are well taken. But you are describing the condition of academic research across most subject matter domains. I.e., the learning trajectory is almost teleological. The large body of existing knowledge makes the incremental value of new knowledge asymptotic to the point where it is considered irrelevant.

As for psychiatry specifically, it seems to this layman that there is now a huge disconnect between the neurological and psychiatric neurology researchers and the clinicians. Because the researchers are all caught up in imaging and genetic studies that have no obvious connection to clinical value. Novel imaging techniques may help validate a diagnosis, but right now, provide little real therapeutic value.

At the end of the day, to the tip of the spear psychiatrist (even academic), it's the great "So what?" attached to the hyper-expensive scanning devices. Step away from the machines and the clinical psychiatrist is stuck with the relatively small inventory of very imperfect psychotropic drugs. With mostly only me-too variants in the developmental pipeline.

Given that psycho-pharmacology has hit a developmental plateau, as an intellectually curious academician, I suppose I would focus on some non-pharmacological therapies that hold promise. Maybe investigate formally integrating meditation, or HRV training or self-hypnosis or elements of positive psychology. But that's just me. I've found that for a lot of people, just going along to get along works just fine. Especially in academia.

BTW, there is also the 800 pound gorilla in the psychiatry faculty lounge at MGH that no doubt plays quite a roll in circumscribing out of the box research that counters the existing pharmaco-centric treatment paradigm:

http://www.mghcme.com/organization/supporters

Best,

Steve

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Cool

Submitted by David Petropoulos on November 10, 2010 - 2:01pm.

Very enjoyable piece.

I hope that normal people will continue to set the standards, and keep the mostly emotionally unwell from pretending they have a say in things. Normal thinkers need to use words like Depression and Bipolar disease to reveal the ''normal pretenders''.

Just wanted to say hi to Steve-I missed that little fella.