Thanks for writing up this review of Mental Health as an EA cause area! As you know this is an issue near and dear to my heart. You’ve done a great job summarizing many of the most interesting and important issues in this space.
I wanted to point out a few areas where I think this report could be improved:
Trace Lithium: I think it is important to distinguish between “Lithium in the Water Supply” as a research topic (looking at naturally varying levels of lithium) versus as an intervention. If we determine that the trace lithium hypothesis is correct, i.e. that lithium is a nutritionally necessary mineral that many people are deficient in, then the best intervention would be for the FDA to issue a Recommended Daily Intake so that it gets added to fortified foods, such as vitamins. This way, people can see when Li has been added to their food, and have autonomy over consuming it. Adding lithium to the public water supply would be ethically problematic, politically difficult, and unnecessary.
Unfortunately, evidence for the trace lithium hypothesis has weakened since OpenPhil wrote their report, due to this study in Demark (however, the range of Li concentrations was limited): http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/6/627/pdf
Suicide and Crisis Hotlines: This is a promising area for research. I haven’t seen any strong RCT’s on these interventions yet.
Marijuana and Opioid overdoses: New evidence has come out since you wrote this post, showing a more complex relationship. The author of the study said, “Before we embrace marijuana as a strategy to combat the opioid epidemic, we need to fully understand the mechanism through which these laws may be helping and see if that mechanism still matters in today’s changing opioid crisis.”
See: https://www.rand.org/news/press/2018/02/06.html
MDMA for PTSD: While promising, I think the risk profile of MDMA and worldwide perception and political realities around it make it a less tractable intervention. I think Propranolol is more promising because it’s already on the WHO List of Essential Medicines and very safe, as I argued in my report: http://www.harvardea.org/blog/2016/7/13/paf-mental-health-in-sub-saharan-africa
DARE: The bulk of evidence on the original DARE program showed that it had no effect—I think it’s an overstatement to say it increased drug consumption. It’s also important to point out that DARE has been overhauled with help of the research community, and their new program, Keepin’ it Real, has shown modest signs of success: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-new-d-a-r-e-program-this-one-works/
Methadone: I haven’t read Elizabeth Pisani’s book, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that it doesn’t reduce addiction—it’s more accurate to say it doesn’t reduce dependence. Addiction is defined in the DSM-V as causing problems in the patient’s work/personal life, so when patients are stabilized on methadone maintenance programs (as many are), working and living normal healthy lives, they are no longer considered addicted.
Looking forward to the next iteration of this!
Eric
Hi Elizabeth,
Thanks for writing up this review of Mental Health as an EA cause area! As you know this is an issue near and dear to my heart. You’ve done a great job summarizing many of the most interesting and important issues in this space.
I wanted to point out a few areas where I think this report could be improved:
DALY count: This article provides good reasons why mental health really repferents 13% rather than 7% of global DALY burden: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26851330
Trace Lithium: I think it is important to distinguish between “Lithium in the Water Supply” as a research topic (looking at naturally varying levels of lithium) versus as an intervention. If we determine that the trace lithium hypothesis is correct, i.e. that lithium is a nutritionally necessary mineral that many people are deficient in, then the best intervention would be for the FDA to issue a Recommended Daily Intake so that it gets added to fortified foods, such as vitamins. This way, people can see when Li has been added to their food, and have autonomy over consuming it. Adding lithium to the public water supply would be ethically problematic, politically difficult, and unnecessary. Unfortunately, evidence for the trace lithium hypothesis has weakened since OpenPhil wrote their report, due to this study in Demark (however, the range of Li concentrations was limited): http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/6/627/pdf
Suicide and Crisis Hotlines: This is a promising area for research. I haven’t seen any strong RCT’s on these interventions yet.
Marijuana and Opioid overdoses: New evidence has come out since you wrote this post, showing a more complex relationship. The author of the study said, “Before we embrace marijuana as a strategy to combat the opioid epidemic, we need to fully understand the mechanism through which these laws may be helping and see if that mechanism still matters in today’s changing opioid crisis.” See: https://www.rand.org/news/press/2018/02/06.html
MDMA for PTSD: While promising, I think the risk profile of MDMA and worldwide perception and political realities around it make it a less tractable intervention. I think Propranolol is more promising because it’s already on the WHO List of Essential Medicines and very safe, as I argued in my report: http://www.harvardea.org/blog/2016/7/13/paf-mental-health-in-sub-saharan-africa
DARE: The bulk of evidence on the original DARE program showed that it had no effect—I think it’s an overstatement to say it increased drug consumption. It’s also important to point out that DARE has been overhauled with help of the research community, and their new program, Keepin’ it Real, has shown modest signs of success: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-new-d-a-r-e-program-this-one-works/
Methadone: I haven’t read Elizabeth Pisani’s book, but I don’t think it’s fair to say that it doesn’t reduce addiction—it’s more accurate to say it doesn’t reduce dependence. Addiction is defined in the DSM-V as causing problems in the patient’s work/personal life, so when patients are stabilized on methadone maintenance programs (as many are), working and living normal healthy lives, they are no longer considered addicted.
Looking forward to the next iteration of this! Eric