A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “medical research”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott Alexander examines whether psychiatric conditions result from evolutionary failures or tradeoffs, proposing that most disorders involve a combination of both.
Scott Alexander warns about the potential misinterpretation of odds ratios in studies, explaining how to convert them to effect sizes for more accurate understanding.
Scott Alexander analyzes the PANDA Study, a large real-world antidepressant trial, discussing its methodology, results, and implications for understanding antidepressant efficacy.
Scott Alexander argues that psychiatric diagnoses, while imperfect, are useful tools despite potentially combining multiple conditions with different causes.
Scott examines studies linking sleeping pills to increased mortality, highlighting a new study that found no link after adjusting for 300 confounders, potentially challenging the validity of less thorough studies.
Scott Alexander examines conflicting narratives about cancer treatment progress, analyzing data to show that while some improvements are due to social factors, there's evidence of genuine advancements in cancer treatment and outcomes.
Scott Alexander critically examines a major meta-analysis on antidepressant efficacy, noting potential biases and comparing its surprising drug rankings to his own previous analysis.
The post examines research suggesting placebos are largely ineffective, explores exceptions, and proposes explanations for observed placebo effects based on brain function and study design.
Scott Alexander recounts his frustrating attempt to conduct a study on a bipolar disorder screening test, highlighting the excessive bureaucratic hurdles that ultimately led to the study's abandonment.
Scott Alexander discusses potential Trump administration health-related appointments, focusing on FDA commissioner candidates Jim O'Neill and Balaji Srinivasan, and their potential to implement beneficial reforms.
Scott argues against Vox's proposal for drug price controls, citing studies that such policies would significantly reduce pharmaceutical innovation and potentially cost millions of life-years long-term.
Scott reviews 'Unlearn Your Pain', finding its psychosomatic theory of chronic pain intriguing but overstated, while acknowledging the book's techniques may still be helpful via placebo effects.
Scott Alexander critiques a study claiming to have found biomarkers for suicide risk, arguing that the results are overstated and such a test would have limited clinical utility even if accurate.
A collection of interesting links covering various topics including medical discoveries, scientific studies, social issues, and economic findings, with brief commentary on each.
Scott Alexander examines the theory linking inflammation to depression, finding it promising but cautioning against overconfidence, and discusses the potential and limitations of anti-inflammatory drugs as depression treatments.
Scott Alexander cautions against basing opinions on limited research, using examples from medicine and economics to show how cherry-picking studies can lead to opposing conclusions.
Scott Alexander compares the disconnect between American and Russian psychopharmacology to having different chemical elements, exploring why effective Russian psychiatric drugs are unknown in America.
Scott Alexander debunks a misleading graph on antibiotic discovery and presents more accurate data, discussing reasons for the decline in antibiotic development.
Scott explores the fascinating etymology of 'placebo' from medieval funerals to medicine, then discusses the controversial placebo effect in depression treatment.
Scott Alexander discusses the online forum Longecity, where users organize group buys of experimental chemicals, seeing it as a risky but intriguing counterbalance to slow drug approval processes.
Scott Alexander critiques mass-produced medical recommendations, showing how they can oversimplify or misrepresent scientific evidence using vitamin D and niacin as examples.
Scott Alexander examines the life cycle of medical ideas, discussing how promising treatments often get stuck in a 'grey area' between proven and alternative medicine.
Scott Alexander presents a roundup of recent scientific and medical studies, covering topics from hallucinations to obesity genetics to schizophrenia treatment.
A collection of interesting links from around the web with Scott's commentary, covering topics from international politics to scientific research to cultural curiosities.
Scott Alexander presents a roundup of recent medical and psychological studies, covering topics from UV light exposure to belief in science during stress.