Today’s NY Times front page featured a story on the problem reproducibility poses for many psychology studies. The story is based on the results of a year-long study where the researchers found they were unable to reproduce 60 out of 100 studies published in three leading psychology journals. “The overall ‘effect size,’ a measure of the strength of a finding, dropped by about half across all of the studies.”
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I’d love to see a similar study done in other areas of research, particularly clinical. I bet results would be just as bleak for a lot of them.
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Agree. Especially if it any aspect that has ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Recent cases agains Johnson and Johnson and GSK would lead me to believe they would have an even worse reproductive failure.
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This wouldn’t be a horrifying problem if “best practices” wasn’t the professional mantra of just about every clinical and social practice now. It basically means that based on “research” that we can’t depend on to be reliable, we will make the decisions that concern you, your family, your society.
What a disaster in waiting.-
You’re right, the “best practices” theology is a recipe for disaster for all non-doctors. It’s resulted in the medical community becoming the number three, or number one, depending on where you look, killer of Americans.
http://www.health-care-reform.net/causedeath.htm
Which means it a disaster we’re now experiencing, not just one “in waiting.”
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This study should come as no surprise. It would be interesting, though not necessary to test clinical studies in the same way. It is not necessary as all clinical studies have already shown that the treatment modalities tested in studies are highly inadequate, and should not be applied in a blanket manner to real people. If one wants to follow true empirically advisable treatment then, if one interprets the research properly, one has to possibly use a variety of approaches that engage the person who is coming for help.
Research in psychology and psychiatry can never take the place of clinical experience and patient reports. Psychology research itself has become an industry that often has little actual value-
“Research in psychology and psychiatry can never take the place of clinical experience and patient reports. Psychology research itself has become an industry that often has little actual value.”
Thank you for stating this so clearly. I agree wholeheartedly. People are getting handsome grants to line and furnish the ivory towers, wasting everyone else’s time and betraying hope, while on the ground, people have become desperate for help which they are not getting.
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Studies show people will believe anything if you say “studies show” before you say it.
