NHS develops online psychological therapy for Bipolar Disorder

http://www.software.ac.uk/blog/2014-09-11-online-psychological-therapy-bipolar-disorder

by zhudenym • 12 years ago

3 24 12 years ago

software.ac.uk

lutusp11• 12 years ago

This is hilarious. How is it that people, when confronted by the fact that an online therapy actually works, has a measurable therapeutic effect, don't ask themselves whether their mental illness is as superficial as its treatment?

To the question "Is my mental illness real?", one answer can be "If you can treat it by looking at some pictures and reading some words on a Website, then no, it's not real."

Imagine an oncologist saying, "Yes, you have cancer, but I have a Website with some pictures and words, that will fix you right up." This isn't likely, because, unlike a psychological condition, cancer is a real disease.

More here: http://arachnoid.com/science_of_mind

pinkyand• 12 years ago

You didn't read the article and it shows.

They compared treatment-as-usual to treatment-as-usual and the online intervention. An my guess is that treatment-as-usual does include meds.

lutusp11• 12 years ago

I read the article and drew the obvious conclusion -- a mental illness that can be effectively treated with a Website is virtual, not real.

bsdshepherd6• 12 years ago

The efficacy of bibliotherapy should not be readily dismissed. Words, written or spoken, images, still or moving, or sounds can create or alleviate illness in the mind. Idleness will deteriorate mind and body as surely as abuse or neglect.

That having been said:

   "Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self esteem 
   be sure that you are not first, in fact, surrounded by a**holes." 
      - William Gibson

lutusp11• 12 years ago

The efficacy of bibliotherapy should not be readily dismissed.

What happened to what is popularly known as common sense? A disease that can be treated by a website is virtual, not real. To see the point, try treating any real disease by visiting a website.

Words, written or spoken, images, still or moving, or sounds can create or alleviate illness in the mind.

Yes, but only when an "illness in the mind" is imaginary.

DanBC6• 12 years ago

Your kook-like obsession with refusing to accept the possibility that mental illness exists is indistinguishabke from bigotry in this post.

People who are sometimes hospitalised can be treated -safely and effectively- with some forms of talking therapies. That does not mean their illness is not real and it is fucking offensive to suggest otherwise.

lutusp11• 12 years ago

Your kook-like obsession ...

1. Do you have any idea how this language makes you -- and all psychologists -- look?

2. According to the NIMH and the usual rules of scientific evidence, the burden is on psychology, not its critics, to prove that mental illnesses are real, a problem that isn't helped at all by the practice of creating and destroying mental illnesses using votes instead of research.

Psychologists could easily reverse the recent NIMH ruling that the DSM is to be dropped as pseudoscience (http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-rats-of-n-i-m-h) -- they could produce scientific evidence that the mental illnesses listed there are real. But, notwithstanding this tangible injury to their livelihoods, they cannot do that. And neither than you.

People who are sometimes hospitalised can be treated -safely and effectively- with some forms of talking therapies.

Yes, which calls into question the reality of mental illnesses. Prove this wrong using evidence -- name a real illness, from the world of medicine, an illness with a known cause, that can be talked out of existence.

In other words, meet your scientific burden of evidence.

That does not mean their illness is not real and it is fucking offensive to suggest otherwise.

Spoken like a true psychologist: everything is an emotional issue, there are no topics that can be discussed dispassionately -- a requirement for science. And, like a religious believer, what is "real" can be asserted without evidence.

... refusing to accept the possibility that mental illness exists is indistinguishabke from bigotry in this post.

Let's analyze this claim. Science, and scientists, proceed using the null-hypothesis precept (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_hypothesis), the precept that a claim is assumed to be false until evidence supports it. The recent NIMH ruling agrees completely with this foundational precept, and that the scientific burden of evidence rightly rests with psychology to prove its claims.

According to you, and based on your posted statement quoted above, this means that scientists are bigots.

Scientists aren't in the habit of "refusing to accept the possibility" of anything, but they refuse to accept ideas having no evidence. You think this makes them bigots. You're both wrong and science-illiterate.

Finally, if mental illnesses can be accepted as real without evidence, then Beth Rutherford's claim to have been raped by her father, and forced to abort with a coat-hanger, must also be accepted as real without evidence. But when she made her claim, Beth Rutherford was a virgin -- in reality.

http://arachnoid.com/trouble_with_psychology

bsdshepherd6• 12 years ago

Terms such as 'kook', 'bigotry' and 'f-ing offensive' will not further the discussion in a positive way. Ad hominem will solve nothing.

Maybe citing the following will be useful:

Griefers have empirically demonstrated that websites can affect mental processes by using flashing images to trigger epileptic seizures.

Music in psychological warfare and torture is well documented.

The Amanda Todd death is sufficient to show that words have the power to kill.

DanBC6• 12 years ago

Imagine an oncologist saying, "Yes, you have cancer, but I have a Website with some pictures and words, that will fix you right up." This isn't likely, because, unlike a psychological condition, cancer is a real disease.

Oncologists do say "you have cancer, I have a website with words and pictures on". CBT is used with cancer patients to manage their pain.

NHS develops online psychological therapy for Bipolar Disorder

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