Hey, it’s Grace Wang…
I just read a very interesting New York Times article written by a practicing psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Friedman, who believes that drugs created by the study of neuroscience can never truly replace traditional therapy for patients suffering from “mind diseases” such as schizophrenia and depression. You can read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/health/19mind.html?ref=science
Dr. Friedman makes a clear delineation between medicine of the mind and medicine of the physical body in justifying his belief and draws upon a personal anecdote during which a patient asks if he himself had ever undergone psychotherapy. Intrigued, Friedman asks himself whether a heart surgeon is required to undergo bypass surgery in order to be a good heart surgeon. His answer is, not surprisingly, no. So what then is intrinsically different between treating someone for a heart attack and treating someone suffering from schizophrenia or some other disorder of the mind? Why does one require the physician to engage in an experience the patient himself must endure?
Friedman concluded that it is the personal connection established between the patient and doctor which set the two scenarios apart. Whereas a cardiothoracic surgeon can successfully conduct heart surgery on a patient under deep anesthesia (who need not meet the surgeon!), a psychiatrist cannot be successful in treating schizophrenia without first developing a trusting relationship of give-and-take and compassionate understanding with his patient. Therein lies the treatment. Therefore, it is helpful for a psychiatrist to have undergone psychotherapy himself for he who has experienced is more likely to relate meaningfully to his patient and subsequently provide useful treatment.
Dr. Friedman holds this relationship shared between the patient and psychiatrist in high regard. Although he believes the field of neuroscience holds much potential, he is not convinced that drugs, artificially created in a laboratory, can ever evoke the same response as two human beings interacting with one another.