Psychotherapy is Better Than Medicines

I named my recent book Better Than Medicines as a declaration and a reminder. People tend to believe too much in prescription medication. That is easy to understand. The public and health care providers are hypnotized by big buck advertising. Medical students are brainwashed from their first day. Medical schools are supported by the pharmaceutical food chain, starting with “free” gifts to medical students, to funding faculty and institutional research. Even those who criticize thoughtless adherence to the conventional medical party line, still mistakenly assume that conventional medicine is much more powerful than it really is. Just like any other communal icon, there are so many cues reinforcing our belief that it is hard to believe that other approaches aren’t only safer, they are truly better than medicines. In the mental health field the most common false assumption is that prescription pills have been proven to be effective and better than anything else available. Nothing could be further from the truth. One example is a recent study comparing one form of psychotherapy with medication. Looking at 90 studies with over 11,000 patients, the investigators concluded that the form of psychotherapy used (Interpersonal Psychotherapy) was at least as effective as medication in every mental health condition considered. Do not interpret this study incorrectly. It doesn’t mean that only this form of psychotherapy is effective, or even that it is the best form of psychotherapy. Those comparisons were not part of this investigation. Interpersonal Psychotherapy is better than psychiatric medication but it could be the least effective form of psychotherapy and other approaches far better than medicines. We don’t know that yet. My point is not that there is no place for psychoactive medication. My point is that it is vital to try other approaches both because they are likely to be safer and most importantly because they are often better than medicines. Here is a recent TV Interview discussing my ideas and...

Light on Vision

Needing to wear glasses has long been viewed as a mark of geekiness without any other real significance. “Just bad luck”, the medical experts said. “Your eyeball is just shaped wrong and there is nothing you can do about it”. Dissenting voices, especially from the fuzzier end of the alternative medical spectrum, promoted eye exercises to improve vision and health and full spectrum lights (like the ones in my office). We have learned that near-sightedness (aka myopia) makes a person more likely to develop glaucoma or retinal detachment. The risk of glaucoma is 14 times higher in those with really bad nearsightedness. Two thirds of those who develop a retinal detachment had nearsightedness before the detachment occurred. Those are pretty serious consequences Many years ago, I heard a wise young female Asian opthalmologist comment that children were spending too much time indoors and reading. She agreed with the fuzzy thinkers that continual and intense focus on nearby, unmoving objects in poor lighting, was unhealthy. She and they were right. Since 1970, the rate of nearsightedness (the most common reason for needing glasses) in the USA has risen a staggering 65%. Rates are even higher in Asian countries, inspiring researchers in Taiwan to conduct a study to learn if requiring children to spend 80 minutes out of doors, each day they were in school would have any impact on nearsightedness. It did. A Danish study discovered one possible explanation. As the shape of the eye determines focal length and, greater focal length is the cause of nearsightedness, that was the focus of their investigation. By measuring the eyes of children through the extreme seasonal changes of the Nordic year, they learned that the less daylight exposure children experienced, the longer their eyes grew. My conclusions? Simple things have hugely positive effects. Being outside is healthy for a person’s eyes and so much else. Full spectrum lighting is the healthiest artificial light....