Furious Seasons

June 14, 2006

Researchers Report, The Media Distorts

You may have run across a headline recently along the lines of "Prozac Prevents Suicide." The articles, and there are many of them, are in response to a study out this week that draws a connection between increased use of Prozac in the 1990s and a fairly slight decrease in the American suicide rate. What's bizarre to me is that the study was published at all, since the authors had no way of teasing out how many of the non-suicides were taking Prozac, some other drug or nothing at all--or whether it was all connected to something else. In other words, it's one of those public health linking studies which I hate so much, attempting to connect broad social variables that may not be connected at all. What's more the study, in my view, improperly analyzes suicide rate data between age groups and finds a decrease in suicide that is pretty minimal--and then draws a connection that is hard to support. It's one that other authors in the same issue of the journal point out as having certain limits.

Nonetheless, the media around the world have run wild with the storyline that Prozac saves lives. One of these days, I'd really like to teach editors and fellow reporters how to quickly digest medical studies so that they can move beyond parroting press releases and do the hard work of reporting the complexity of important social issues. They can even do this under deadline pressure!

Posted by Philip Dawdy at June 14, 2006 07:25 AM

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Comments

Dawdy we should have a conference for people in the media, training them on how to do stories about mental health, illness, and disability in the 21st century...or co-present at a big media conference or something.....You have so much to bring to the table, and from my expeirence doing mental health stories with huge corporate media outlets, they want to make good stories, they just don't have the time/training/support....

Posted by: lizziesimon at June 14, 2006 01:26 PM

Please do this.
It is one thing to preach to the choir, and another to truly walk out of the wings and onto the stage.
This is an enormous task, and good luck to both of you accomplishing in one clean sweep, educating the public as well as the media.
This will not be easy due to those "hooks" the media love to use at 5pm.
Get rid of those.
Speaking at conferences(don't hate me) is one thing.
Speaking to ignorant general society and being heard is another, and an accomplishment worth fighting for.....
I'm not in this discussion as a published person, or any one who counts, but I am in this arena. There are so many wrongs that need to be righted.
It is time for someone to get brave enough to walk out, into an aggressive crowd and speak for those who cannot.
I have, I will, and will continue.
I do not have a book. I am not a reporter.
Nothing to lose>?yep. My paycheck. I dont care.
Open the roof to this!
Not a window, not a glimpse, not a carefully written perspective.
Bulldoze the building.
If some one does not do this now, where the hell will we be in 10/20/50 years?
Dead.
The future is now.
Come on.
Move forward and stop being so fucking scared to speak beyond safety zones.
There are some good step off points, but we all know the walls are still solid.
Who will step up to the plate willing to lose what they think they can't?
I am not waiting.
Ride in my wake.

Posted by: Stephany at June 14, 2006 06:34 PM

Prozac created a false sense of wanting to live in my life.
This was truly a chemical from hell.
Cymbalta, Zoloft, Luvox, just google them.
When we change the chemical balance in our brains with drugs, legal or not, we deal with the darkside.
Researchers and people never taking these meds will never get this.
Hmmm.
How to reach them?
I'm just a mom.

Posted by: Stephany at June 14, 2006 06:45 PM

You are going to have to take 2 steps forward, and skip what spaces you think need to be landed on.
Educate by words, example, any other route than training. It is too late.
Place yourself in the end result and go backward.
Visualize the end result, the gaps will fill in later.
Educating media is too slow and will not work as effectively as a blast into the spotlight, relentless and verbal.
It is truly the time to stop thinking and talking and it really is time for actions to speak louder than words.
In the general, and mostly ingnorant, and I do not say that lightly, public: who heard the speech?
Who reads the book?
Reach beyond the grasp you once knew, as a familiar place and go into a place no one has stood.
Fear does drive courage.

A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
- Walter Bagehot

There are too many people suffering for us to stand and be silent when we have the luxury to speak.

Posted by: Stephany at June 14, 2006 07:43 PM