Patrick D Hahn
Science Writer
Does Baltimore Really Need Personalized Medicine?
October 21, 2019
In a city where three hundred people — most of them young black males – die every year by gunfire, in which the mortality rate for black babies is twice that of white ones, schools are closing early because of lack of air conditioning, and too many citizens dwell in rodent-infested hellholes, is “personalized medicine” really what we need?
Hyping biological nature of mental illness worsens stigma
June 02, 2018
These days, calls to end the stigmatization of mental illness have become routine. And who could argue with that? People with serious mental illness are by definition suffering. Why would we want to add to that by deeming them disgraceful as well?
Antidepressants: worth the risk?
April 04, 2018
“This meta-analysis finally puts to bed the controversy on antidepressants.”
So says Professor Carmine Pariante of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, on the largest ever meta-analysis of the efficacy of antidepressants, published last month in Lancet.
I always thought the whole point of science is that nothing is ever “finally put to bed,” but never mind that for now. What did the study actually find?
Snow job
May 20, 2016
The message was taped to the windshield of a pickup truck parked on a public street:
“This parking space did not magically shovel itself! Be considerate of your neighbors and other people in the neighborhood. DON’T steal parking spaces that people worked for several hours to clear.”
The parking space didn’t magically pave itself, either — the taxpayers, presumably including the owner of the pickup truck, paid for that — but that point seems to have eluded the anonymous author of this angry missive.
The statinization of America
May 20, 2016
Anyone who wants to know why medical costs continue to skyrocket needs only to look at the paper published in the July 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that examined the "cost-effectiveness" of increasing statin use.
Antidepressants: A deadly treatment?
May 20, 2016
The crash of Germanwings Flight 9525, allegedly the intentional act of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, and the deaths of all 150 people on board is indeed a tragedy. But, some good may come out of it if it induces people to take another look at those substances the pharmaceutical industry calls “antidepressants.”
