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I'm currently suffering from a serious case of distrust and cynicism over anything related to medical health news, I wonder if this is widespread? The very fir

I'm currently suffering from a serious case of distrust and cynicism over anything related to medical health news, I wonder if this is widespread? The very first thing that popped into my head reading this was, "Probably just a another coordinated marketing campaign by pharmaceutical interests aimed at increasing the prescription of anti-depressants to teenagers", and the data from the CDC also made me uneasy: > "The Youth Risk Behavior Survey was given to 17,000 adolescents at high schools across the United States in the fall of 2021. The survey is conducted every two years, and the rates of mental health problems have gone up with every report since 2011, Dr. Ethier said." Is this really enough data to come to any solid conclusions? What's the seasonal spread, for example, do you get big differences if you run the survey in June or July? What's the socioeconomic spread on the data? Are there major differences in reporting between boys and girls? Can this be accepted as a real trend with any confidence? I just don't know about this stuff anymore.

dandanua 4y ago
We just slowly moving to the Brave New World, where drugs for "happiness" will be mandatory.
EGreg 4y ago
I wouldn’t be surprised if that is ultimately the outcome, REGARDLESS of whether this is a coordinated effort, or not. Decision makers and employees need to cover their behind, and kicking the can down to the doctors and pharma is the safest bet for the school admins etc. I mean, the laws and morés have become such that they ignore the parents’ wishes now, regarding gender transition, or even taking away their kids if they allow them to roam freely outside. It’s a completely different society, and everyone would rather medicate the problems away than confront our economic systems and social norms to solve problems upstream — by, say, giving everyone a UBI so they can spend more time with their own kids.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
tablespoon 4y ago
> Is this really enough data to come to any solid conclusions? Tech companies with market caps that dwarf the largest pharma companies would like you to think "no." IIRC, these mental health trend-lines started to rapidly get worse at almost exactly the same time that smartphones and social media started to take off.
nzach 4y ago
> distrust and cynicism over anything related to medical health news, I wonder if this is widespread? I doubt it. The problem with this approach is that in general you won't have the answers you want/need. So in the end you'll leave with more questions than answers, and that is not a great feeling. And even if you did had all the answers, most people don't have the time to fully understand them. Besides that, I don't think that 'medical health news' have anything special. This should apply to all subjects.
dotnet00 4y ago
I don't think you're wrong to be cynical, but I think that to an extent the increasing mental health concerns about children make sense given that we've just come out of an especially socially debilitating period. I've been getting to see through my niece how much the 2 years hurt her social development. She's just a kindergartner. so she can probably still recover, but I imagine it's much harder for kids who missed out on their early teens and learning to cope with problems without being in a comfortable place/without a parent one door away.
trieste92 4y ago
> I'm currently suffering from a serious case of distrust and cynicism over anything related to medical health news, I wonder if this is widespread? I feel the same way but at this point it isn't suffering for me. I open nyt and see something pharma/mental health/etc related and assume it's someone advocating some lifestyle that benefits the pharma industry I mean, this is sort of our economic system: manipulating people into being more profitable. It makes zero sense to me why some people decide to selectively trust based off of whatever is trending in political discourse. Most strangers who want to reach you want to sell you something. Maybe some people have trouble accepting that we live in an actual dystopia? Idk Edit, relevant article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/13/mental-health-data-brokers/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/13/mental-...

dandanua 4y ago

We just slowly moving to the Brave New World, where drugs for "happiness" will be mandatory.

EGreg 4y ago

I wouldn’t be surprised if that is ultimately the outcome, REGARDLESS of whether this is a coordinated effort, or not. Decision makers and employees need to cover their behind, and kicking the can down to the doctors and pharma is the safest bet for the school admins etc. I mean, the laws and morés have become such that they ignore the parents’ wishes now, regarding gender transition, or even taking away their kids if they allow them to roam freely outside. It’s a completely different society, and everyone would rather medicate the problems away than confront our economic systems and social norms to solve problems upstream — by, say, giving everyone a UBI so they can spend more time with their own kids.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

tablespoon 4y ago

> Is this really enough data to come to any solid conclusions? Tech companies with market caps that dwarf the largest pharma companies would like you to think "no." IIRC, these mental health trend-lines started to rapidly get worse at almost exactly the same time that smartphones and social media started to take off.

nzach 4y ago

> distrust and cynicism over anything related to medical health news, I wonder if this is widespread? I doubt it. The problem with this approach is that in general you won't have the answers you want/need. So in the end you'll leave with more questions than answers, and that is not a great feeling. And even if you did had all the answers, most people don't have the time to fully understand them. Besides that, I don't think that 'medical health news' have anything special. This should apply to all subjects.

dotnet00 4y ago

I don't think you're wrong to be cynical, but I think that to an extent the increasing mental health concerns about children make sense given that we've just come out of an especially socially debilitating period. I've been getting to see through my niece how much the 2 years hurt her social development. She's just a kindergartner. so she can probably still recover, but I imagine it's much harder for kids who missed out on their early teens and learning to cope with problems without being in a comfortable place/without a parent one door away.

trieste92 4y ago

> I'm currently suffering from a serious case of distrust and cynicism over anything related to medical health news, I wonder if this is widespread? I feel the same way but at this point it isn't suffering for me. I open nyt and see something pharma/mental health/etc related and assume it's someone advocating some lifestyle that benefits the pharma industry I mean, this is sort of our economic system: manipulating people into being more profitable. It makes zero sense to me why some people decide to selectively trust based off of whatever is trending in political discourse. Most strangers who want to reach you want to sell you something. Maybe some people have trouble accepting that we live in an actual dystopia? Idk Edit, relevant article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/13/mental-health-data-brokers/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/02/13/mental-...