EBM’s Other Side

W ith regard to Dr. Susan Padrino’s article in the August 16 issue, I am on the other end of the career spectrum, having trained in the 1950s, and trained as well as a psychotherapist. I have been obliged, with sadness, to watch the decline of Western consciousness and its effect on the practice of medicine and psychiatry. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is just one more blow to the necessity for self-awareness in every aspect of our lives.

When I was a resident, I was more than eager to do a “drug study.” I soon discovered that it was easy to see through the “blind.” I have yet to see that phenomenon mentioned, formulated, or made a necessary part of “the data” in any study.

Now, we are all in it together. With APA’s publication of DSM, we have sealed the fate of generations of sufferers. Our patients are nothing but bags of chemicals to which we are to add the ones that will correct the “chemical imbalance.” In many years of public clinic work, I have seen “treatment” reduced to a cookbook counting of behavioral symptoms. Of course, as the psychiatrist on the team, it was my job to dish out pills. I was never able to extinguish my real Self completely as a psychiatrist (and as a human being). Over and over, patients told me how important it was to them that I listened. Empathy was clearly what made my EBM-driven choice of pills work.

Rev up your paranoia, and you will discover what Dr. Padrino discovered (and wisely suppressed). It really is an “evil plot.”