Posted by SLS on June 7, 2010, at 5:42:23
In reply to Re: Don't know what to believe, posted by Huxley on June 7, 2010, at 0:25:56
I agree with Mr. Took. Whitaker seems to compare apples and oranges and presents them as being equivalent. For example, he equates the number of hospitalizations in 1955 to SSD cases in 2003 as indexes of illness rates. There is no science presented here to establish the validity of using such a comparison.
"Source: The disability rates for 1850 through 1955 are based on
the number of hospitalized mentally ill, as cited by E . Fuller
Torrey in The Invisible Plague (2001) . The disability rates for
1987 and 2003 are based on the number of mentally ill receiving
SSI or SSDI payments, as was reported in 2004 by the Social
Security Administration."Whitaker misuses statistics quite dramatically to promote his thesis. How does he account for the lack of an equally dramatic rise in suicides over this same time period? Actually, the rate of suicide in the US had been increasing prior to the introduction of antidepressants. This must be accounted for when looking for a cause and effect. Is this increase due to sociological factors or simply a difference in reporting practices? Perhaps both? And what of the decline in suicides seen since the introduction of Prozac in 1987?
http://www.suicide.org/suicide-statistics.html#death-rates
- ScottThe measure of achievement lies not in how high the mountain,
but in how hard the climb.The measure of success lies only in how high one feels he must
climb to get there.
poster:SLS
thread:949655
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100604/msgs/950217.html