Posted by Bob on March 17, 2012, at 13:45:15
In reply to why do they say ketamine 'resets' the brain, posted by poser938 on March 17, 2012, at 0:48:53
> that it is like what a windows boot up disc is to windows. i find it hard to make sense of some things i read lately, but could anyone else try and explain this?
There's a lot of analogies intended to help the uninitiated masses in understanding mental illness that don't really hold once you are very familiar with the subject in question. For example, they have often referred to DBS as a pacemaker for the brain, but it really doesn't operate like a real pacemaker for the heart as we understand it.I've noticed that since I have more carefully read and tried to understand medical studies in recent years I have come to realize that many of them are quite inconsequential, or sometimes outright wrong. One thing I see a lot of is published summaries in the news that fail to demonstrate any chain of causality, but nevertheless suggest this very thing to the casual reader. Just yesterday I saw something about a study where they followed people for 10 years near the end of their life and found that the ones who had the healthiest, most vibrant minds also were the ones who regularly challenged their minds with puzzles and novel mental tasks. They left the conclusion like that in the article but didn't even question whether the people who didn't do these mental endeavors already had the type of mind that would develop problems in the latter years. There really was nothing to suggest that the mental tasks were actually keeping the peoples' minds healthy.
Bob
poster:Bob
thread:1013283
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120316/msgs/1013314.html