The author based their research on personal experience as a physician and writer. His examination of how doctors write about their patients and publish in journals can be taken as accurate, sue simply to experience.
The author is making the point that we are too caught up in the numbers and facts of medicine, and we need to go back to the narrative. The details that come with a patient's history and social actions contribute a great deal to outcome and treatment. The author supports this with several examples of cases he has had or heard of and how they changed his view of a treatment.
Dr. Peter Kramer- a clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown University. Author of the article.
This article has implications for public health, as the treatment of people, rather than patients, is what is emphasized here.
"If we weigh “evidence” by the pound or the page, we risk moving toward a monoculture of C.B.T"
"Stories capture small pictures, too. I’m thinking of the anxious older man given Zoloft. That narrative has power"
"For a variety of reasons, including a heightened awareness of medical error and a focus on cost cutting, we have entered an era in which a narrow, demanding version of evidencebased medicine prevails"