The New York Times on DBS

Vera Hassner Sharav of the Alliance for Human Research Protection criticises a recent New York Times Magazine article on Deep Brain Stimulation:

"The surgical implant has been tested in 12 severely depressed patients in an uncontrolled trial —with no placebo comparator. This is the sole basis for the claim made that this treatment works in 8 out of 12 treatment resistant patients. In the “success” case example of the article, Deanna Benjamin, a 41 year old former nurse who underwent the experimental surgical implantation, she continues to take a combination of powerful drugs—the antidepressant, Effexor and antipsychotic, Seroquel...

As has been documented by science writer, Robert Whitaker, no matter how radical or unsubstantiated the claims, whenever psychiatry has launched a new treatment—such as, lobotomy, insulin coma, electro-shock, new generation antidepressants (SSRIs), second generation neuroleptics (‘atypical antipsychotics’)—the uncritical press, most especially The New York Times—enthusiastically endorsed every one of them. Indeed, the Times has a long record of allowing its pages to be used by medically licensed salesmen who, in true snake oil sales tradition, were in the business of selling hope rather than scientifically proven safe and effective treatments."

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