Letters to the Editor
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@ anonymous 5:45
"If it's genetic you really can't treat it and that will not do for the thousands of people invested in it right now."
What?! Cystic fibrosis is genetic and we can treat that. Not cure, but vastly improve life expectancy and quality thereof. Same for Down syndrome, sickle cell anemia, and schizophrenia. Not curable, but proper attention can be the difference between life and death.
Yes, I think we have a therapy industry overinvested in its pet hypotheses du jour. I have ample personal experience with psychologists highly resistant to considering information that might undermine their own understanding.
We already know that many mental illnesses don't respond equally to the same treatments in all sufferers. I think it's worth hoping that with expanded knowledge of the disorder's biological mechanisms, then treatment can be more individually tailored to take advantage of how a patient's own body is actually working, in concert with whatever the social/environmental stressors are, and increase the likelihood of recovery.