El. knyga: Is evidence-based psychiatry ethical?

For those who wish not to "get swept along in this latest chapter in the history of medical ideas" (p 186), Is Evidence-Based Psychiatry Ethical? is a 1-stop primer on EBM (albeit a biased one) and a stimulus for thinking critically about its central tenets and implications. * Nicholas Kontos, Harvard Medical School, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry Book Review * Read this brilliant book by Mona Gupta, Is Evidence-Based Psychiatry Ethical... The lesson is that psychiatry is not just another branch of medicine. The essential issue in psychiatry is not what we all share, but what makes us unique. This book on Evidence-Based Medicine in psychiatry has layers of riches. First, and particularly for practitioners and trainees, the book explains EBM in a detailed, fair-minded, and critical way that allows readers to understand the utility as well as the limits of EBM in everyday practice. Second, it describes the ethical context of psychiatric practice and its relationship to "knowledge production" that will be of substantial interest to those training directors in psychiatry who wish to avoid a naive scientism and train effective, moral clinicians with equal portions of knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Third, the ingenious research methodology behind the book combines qualitative social science research, philosophical analysis, and iterative peer discussion that could provide a fruitful model for any number of social/conceptual issues in mental health. In her excellent book, Mona Gupta fruitfully organizes and interprets this uneasiness. She shows that, because the care of the mentally disordered always occur in an intersubjective space, it is by definition a social and ethical enterprise. Many of the variables involved in this process are beyond the reach of quantification. Hence, the question of whether by ignoring them āevidence-based psychiatryā effectively infringes and distorts essential aspects of treatment needs an answer. After a thorough analysis, Mona Guptaās conclusion is that it does. This is an illuminating and interesting book on the applicability of evidence-based medicine (EBM) to psychiatry... an excellent and scholarly book that addresses an important issue for the future of psychiatry. I highly recommend it to any practicing psychiatrist. * Doody's Notes *