Medical Nihilism
by Jacob Stegenga · first published 2018
10mentions
4recommended by
9HN commenters
2019–2022first – last mentioned
44% recommend56% neutral
- A highly controversial argument for a sceptical view about the effectiveness of modern medicine - Draws on interdisciplinary research and grounds the arguments in medical examples - Accessible to readers from any academic background Medical nihilism is the view that we should have little confidence in the effectiveness of medical interventions. This volume argues that medical nihilism is a compelling view of modern medicine. If we consider the frequency of failed medical interventions, the extent of misleading evidence in medical research, the thin theoretical basis of many interven
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Pharmaceutical research is very broken. It is startling how ineffective all but a few drugs are. Medical Nihilism by Jacob Stegenga is a great book on the topic.
on “US Workers Are Paying High Taxes. But Without Any of the Benefits” ↗The week before that was even more incisive http://www.econtalk.org/jacob-stegenga-on-medical-nihilism/
on “IBM halting sales of Watson AI tool for drug discovery” ↗Related, Recommended: https://www.amazon.com/Medical-Nihilism-Jacob-Stegenga/dp/01... You can listen to a recent EconTalk podcast for a one hour summary of the book.
on “Too Many Medicines Simply Don’t Work” ↗…was adopted cases went down” isn’t proof because if you look at the non-mask areas, cases also went down during the period. — I’m on mobile so can’t dig up the quote but I’d really recommend reading Medical Nihilism by Stegenga. You seem to have a backwards view of evidentiary standards. That is to say, most findings are false (Ionnidis has a famous paper on this too). That’s why RCTs and the like are so incredibly…
on “YouTube suspends Rand Paul for seven days” ↗…or nat. lab + => national lab I mostly read papers in my field (exp. physics), of course. But I began reading a bit more in medical and psyche a few years ago. My views are influenced by books like "Medical Nihilism", and "Science Fictions". Reading COVID papers was also caused me to revise my prior-probabilities downward.
on ““Is there a heuristic we might use to identify and flag questionable papers?”” ↗…spend close to zero time learning about the uses of exercise in improving health outcomes[4]. [0] https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/eric_hoffer_142924 [1] https://www.econtalk.org/jacob-stegenga-on-medical-nihilism/ [2] https://peterattiamd.com/katherineeban/ [3] https://peterattiamd.com/davidlight/ [4] https://www.exerciseismedicine.org/
on “TikTok trend that makes teens believe they have serious mental disorders” ↗If you are intrigued by the thesis of the book, EconTalk has an episode with the author. https://www.econtalk.org/jacob-stegenga-on-medical-nihilism/
on “A new book critiques medicine” ↗Dr. Jacob Stegenga - Medical Nihilism: Assessing Medical Evidence in a Neo-Liberal Age https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgX4BKCxTI4
on “A new book critiques medicine” ↗See also (with no overlap in authors): The case for medical nihilism and “gentle medicine” (Richard Smith's review of book by Jacob Stegenga): https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2018/06/04/richard-smith-the-case-... > Most practising doctors are, I believe, instinctive medical…
on “The case for being a medical conservative” ↗The book “Medical Nihilism” by Jacob Stegenga similarly covers the subject of hiding negative results, how even apparently carefully performed double-blind studies can be manipulated to favor pharmaceutical companies and how those…
on “Gilead should ditch remdesivir and focus on its simpler and safer ancestor” ↗