Allen Frances, disses a gift of half a billion for genetic research in Mental Health
In the past Frances has been an important guy in the industry...though he didn't like the changes of the DEM-5 and actively worked against it. Now he comments about half a billion on research into genetics of mental illness which he sees as disproportionate with the needs of the field ...
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The really glamorous stuff consumes almost all of the enormous NIMH budget and now has behind it the huge addition of a $650 million dollar private donation aimed at solving the genetics of mental illness.
Neuroscience is an extremely easy sell to Congress and rich philanthropists because it promises that we are on the brink of achieving fundamental breakthroughs in understanding how our genes and brains work (and sometimes don’t work).
But such overpromising ignores the painful lessons of history. The neuroscience and genetic revolutions have been astounding in their technical virtuosity and fascinating in their findings—but to date have not helped a single patient. We have learned a great deal in basic science, but nothing at all that translates to better clinical care.
This is not for want of trying. The smartest people using increasingly sophisticated techniques have spent the last 40 years repeatedly reporting seemingly exciting findings suggesting that breakthroughs were on the near horizon. They were wrong. Most findings either don’t replicate at all or turn out to be trivial or are not generalizable.
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- See more at: http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/blogs/couch-crisis/will-650-million-genetic-studies-solve-mystery-mental-illness?GUID=CBA4F64C-561D-4B53-A576-506E8F3435F7&rememberme=1&ts=29072014#sthash.ZMvahJcM.dpuf