Neurologist

Damn I can’t find the original gif from the movie. Here’s a low quality edit I could find.

The placebo effect is way overstated in popular culture compared to what medicine has proven.

A recent cochrane review showed the only symptoms it had a large body of evidence showing it worked was “pain” and “nausea”, both things we do not know how to measure so they are by definition subjective and patient reported. The placebo effect changes remarkably little in the body, the changes being in the person’s perception.

No it’s not.

We usually have guidelines and protocols to follow which minimise the chance of harm and standardise care. Here we’re left with nothing, unsure what we’re allowed to do or not, unsure what we should do. There have already been multiple reports of mismanagement of pre-natal care resulting in deaths because of this.

Crispr is the exception:

1. it’s massively expensive
2. it can cure multiple illnesses and perform loads of other functions

Most proposals for cures are a fairly simple (and cheap) therapeutic target that will only work for one condition or even just a subset of cases within that condition.

That’s the lenient interpretation I’d hope.

But we’re not an alternative medicine group or anything. If you look into their shareholder meetings the public info seems to be that they judge whether investments are worth it by potential return on investment, and well a lifelong treatment is always going to be more profitable for them than a cure.

Completely true. But there would be fewer of them.

It’s crazy that when my research team comes up with a therapeutic target we believe might lead to curing a disease, we get crickets from drug companies. But when we present therapeutic targets for long term treatment, we get lots of interest.

Sounds like my colleagues. But since medicine is a hierarchical culture that values conformity over critical thought, that type of behaviour tends to actually work in favour of the person.

Although it’s true that nurses can have some fucked up beliefs, don’t underestimate doctors. Some of my colleagues are ableist, misogynistic, bigoted, power hungry, with a superiority complex. I think these are the kind of Gps and specialists making r/medicine so awful.

That aside, as a medical professional, I have to say r/medicine is such a cesspool of a subreddit, and I don’t say this lightly.

They regularly ridicule patients and specific conditions, harbour prejudiced views towards poor people and people from minority groups, and generally push pseudoscientific nonsense.

It’s a really disheartening subreddit to visit when you’ve got your patient’s best interests at heart.

Apart from that, I do agree with their view on UnitedHealth’s CEO.

In general it’s terrifying, we will need to be especially kind, helpful, and understanding to patients who risk losing disability benefits and similar through cuts. I don’t know how much we’ll be able to trust federal research either. I’m not too familiar with how the NIH etc is structured so I’m not sure how much RFK and Trump will be able to change things.

In my field I’m worried about a complete federal erasure of Long COVID, banishing it without funding and expertise in a sort of semi-recognised void. Clearly the incoming government does not want to acknowledge any negatives of COVID at all, and I’m worried it will lead to much suffering.

if youve got to any, could you tell me what you think? It’s always useful to know what I should recommend to my patients to show their friends and family.