The Science Guy
America's mental health doctor: neuroscience will help troubled minds
Starting a scientific revolution in 2014 requires some powerful weaponry.
So Thomas Insel, who at the moment is trying to persuade a roomful of mental health advocates that our treatments for diseased minds lack a foundation in, of all things, science, hauls out his biggest gun.
Insel screens slides depicting the plunging mortality rate from childhood leukemia (fatal in 95 percent of cases 30 years ago, today it’s cured that often), heart disease (deaths have fallen 63 percent), AIDS (“essentially a death sentence” 15 years ago, today it’s “considered a chronic disease”), and strokes (20,000 fewer deaths annually than a few decades ago). “You know things are changing when Hallmark comes out with a centenary card,” Insel says.
Then he shows them the suicide count.
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