Posted by llrrrpp on May 10, 2006, at 8:24:25
In reply to I never say never - advice from a pharmacologist » Larry Hoover, posted by madeline on May 10, 2006, at 7:58:05
Wow, this is getting spicy!
Lar. wanted to know my specialty. Well, the cogn. neuroscientist in me does functional brain imaging of language development. (fMRI).
Also, llrrrpp is actually an acronym. l.l.r.r.r.p.p., and lacking the full translation (confidential), I leave it up to my readers to use their vivid imaginations to fill in the blanks.
As far as statistics & research, well, I agree that depression is probably a heterogeneous disorder, and as such, perhaps we are dealing with several subtypes, if not several completely different disorders altogether. Maddie brings up an excellent point that independent field testing is definitely advantageous in terms of figuring out when, how and why to use different treatments (including therapy). I have a pretty strong faith in my pdoc, in this regard. He's won awards and has a lot experience as a researcher and a practitioner. I think he's pretty creative, and a nice person, but when someone who's at the top of his/her field acknowledges huge gaps in the literature, indeed in basic knowledge of mechanism of the disorder and the treatments, it's pretty scary. At any rate, thanks for your insights, and for the links to more information.
I think my next line of business, aside from getting my neurotransmitters tweaked, is to figure out exactly what therapy is all about. I'm not sure what my goals are, and what exactly I'm supposed to be talking about for 50 minutes once a week. For a while my main objective was to avoid crying at all costs. Well, the floodgates opened a few weeks back, so that silly goal has been abandoned. I feel like T and I are still getting to know each other. Part of me definitely resists sharing the darker twisted side with a relative stranger, but part of me desparately wants to get better and get on with what's left of my life. I'm pretty sure that we're working with a short-term therapy model, probably CBT, but my T is not completely wedded to any therapeutic approach.
Any thoughts?
poster:llrrrpp
thread:641878
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060505/msgs/642062.html