Brain Function/Insurance/Freud

[ChinoCoug]

I wanted to get Waters' take on this. I've just finished

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Good-Br...9508735&sr=1-1

He said that through SPECT scans, it's discovered that the brain matures at 25. Car insurance companies discovered this with data before the theoretical link was established.

He also chews out psychiatrists for not adopting brain imaging at a fast-enough pace, making it lag behind the rest of medicine. It's like orthepedics not taking X-rays.

He said that Freud wanted to examine the brain, but the technology of his day wouldn't let him. He knew that one day neuroscience and psychology would be together. But now, even with advances, the idea is slow to be adopted.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by ChinoCoug

I wanted to get Waters' take on this. I've just finished

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Good-Br...9508735&sr=1-1

He said that through SPECT scans, it's discovered that the brain matures at 25. Car insurance companies discovered this with data before the theoretical link was established.

He also chews out psychiatrists for not adopting brain imaging at a fast-enough pace, making it lag behind the rest of medicine. It's like orthepedics not taking X-rays.

He said that Freud wanted to examine the brain, but the technology of his day wouldn't let him. He knew that one day neuroscience and psychology would be together. But now, even with advances, the idea is slow to be adopted.

I don't agree with this conclusion for a couple of reasons:

1) it is very expensive.
2) it is not accurate enough

Meaning, that you can't use a scan to make a diagnosis, because there is too much variation.

What would it mean if I took a $1000 scan and said, "there's a 65% chance, based on this scan, that you are depressed." And he says back to me, "Not sh*t Sherlock, that's why I came to you in the first place."

They day may one day come that we use scans to make diagnoses, monitor treatments, etc. But it's pretty far away.

The real problem is we don't understand etiology, pathophysiology, and prevention. That's the problem in psychiatry.