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The author is a psychiatrist who specializes in clinical depression. He conducted his research for this article with anecdotes and personal experience. He references other studies regarding clinical depression and refers to doctors that used stories and personal experiences to help shape their diagnosis.

• "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 evidence-based medicine prevails. "
• "No formal research can offer a 40-year lead-in or a 19-year follow-up. Few studies report on both symptoms and social progress. Research reduces information about many people; vignette retains the texture of life in one of its forms."
• "Beyond its roles as illustration, affirmation, hypothesis-builder and low-level guidance for practice, storytelling can act as a modest counterbalance to a straitened understanding of evidence."
• "We need storytelling, to set us in the clinical moment, remind us of the variety of human experience and enrich our judgment."

• number of people on anti-depression medication in the US 
• number of doctors on anti-depression medication in the US
• Peter D. Kramer, the author

It doesn't talk about these things because its focus is on depression and the ways in which stories and personal experiences could help doctors better the lives of their patients. 

Per Bech - Danish Psychiatrist who provided the author with a story about a patient of his. He is an innovator in clinical psychometrics. 

Journal of the American Medical Association - in 1992 published an article about giving weight to the combination of doctor's experience and biological plausibility. 

Hellmuth Kaiser - a teacher to the author and taught him about fictional cases portrayed on stage. 

Oxford University Press - began publishing a journal devoted to case reports of patients. 

New England Jounrl of Medicine - opened an issue with a case history to highlight patient experience. 

Lone Lindberg - coauthor for Dr. Bech, point out that spontaneous recovery from depression late in life is rare

Leston Havens - psychoanalyst - uses an interesting approach with his patients

The main point of this article is that medicine needs human experience through stories and vignettes in order to provide better diagnoses and outcomes for patients. This author highlights the importance for doctors to consider stories and personal anecdotes when deciding what would be best for their patient.