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DiabeticEagle1394 karma

Those actually fit into the category of "negative" symptoms of many psychiatric illnesses. Most major psychotic or mood disorders, such as schozophrenia or Bipolar I and II will have patients living with depression for roughly 50-75% of their lives and then psychotic for the other portion. Generally psychiatric with schizophrenia patients who have been untreated in the past, especially first episode psychosis which is treated incorrectly/incompletely, will experience destruction of grey matter in their brains (a necessary part of normal functioning) which leads to dramatic increases in baseline depression when not in psychosis. Depressive symptoms are indicative of the onset of a relapse, and are often viewed by clinicians as a sign of medication non-adherence or other major risk factors.

Source: have worked closely with many psych patients in the emergency and inpatient settings for the last 4 years

Tl;dr people with almost any mental illness will often appear depressed more than exhibiting other psychotic behavior.

DiabeticEagle1313 karma

Your brain does need grey matter to function well, however it's not as though it gets destroyed as soon as your psychosis starts. It's generally affected a bit by first episode psychosis but the real issues begin once that episode goes untreated for a prolonged period of time or in repeat episodes. Just be sure to remain on your meds and utilize CBT as that will help to maintain your normal social functioning.

DiabeticEagle1311 karma

It's part of the disease process itself. The destruction of grey matter is part of what causes the decreased cognitive functioning in patients who have schizophrenia and multiple relapse patients especially.

DiabeticEagle132 karma

The med flight crew in my city dressed up like Santa and his elves and went around to much of the hospital seeing patients and delivering some Christmas cheer. I didn't get to see that, but I did get to see someone dressed as Santa giving report while elves transferred a patient from stretcher to bed. They may be cocky as can be, but they also do a hell of a job. Merry Christmas and be safe out there!

DiabeticEagle131 karma

Hi Jeff, with the current opioid epidemic in the USA there are several groups/companies that are using big data to examine what methods are most effective in treating addiction, stopping trafficking, and improving overdose and rehabilitation care in the community. This has long been the practice for insurance and hospital financial practices, but now it is becoming a cornerstone of much of the healthcare industry outside of the financial side. I know that your career is dedicated to fields other than healthcare, but do you see data analysts such as yourself as a field that healthcare should incorporate more or less in the future? And if so, do you believe that you have any insights into how you would approach analysis of such a complex epidemic that you think most analysts would miss?

I ask this because you had mentioned that data analysis is simply a tool that can be used for good or bad depending on the morality of the individual. However, healthcare is a field that I think many people believe should be inherently positive in morality and inviting data analysis into the equation may open the door for ignoring morality if used to justify the wrong ends.