TOW #5 - There's Such Thing As Too Much Neuroscience

In his article, author John C. Markowitz discusses the current lack of funding toward mental health research in America and the importance of this research. Markowitz is a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and is also a research psychiatrist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and wrote this article in response to the election of Dr. Joshua Gordon as the new director of the National Institute of Mental Health. The former director of the organization, Dr. Thomas Insel focused much of its budget on neuroscience research. Throughout the text, Markowitz employs examples of mental health issues and provides data about the research into these issues in order to show that the funding of this research is immensely important and is a serious concern. Markowitz grabs the focus of the audience by introducing the symptoms of perhaps the most major mental health issue, depression. He states, “some criteria are low mood; wanting to die; and sleep, appetite, and energy changes. These are biological markers that neuroscience seeks to identify.” (Markowitz). By presenting these harrowing symptoms, Markowitz is able to pull at the emotions of the reader. Depression occurs in such a vast quantity of people in modern society that many readers can likely relate to the words being written. Markowitz uses these charged emotions to show that research into neuroscience could help to develop more effective treatments for these issues. After presenting how important this research is, Markowitz goes on to show how underfunded the research is writing that, “clinical research has slowed to a trickle, now accounting for only 10 percent of the institute’s budget.” (Markowitz). Through the inclusion of this statistic, Markowitz is able to show the public how underfunded this critical area of research is. Without proper funding, it will be more difficult and will take more time to find effective treatments for many mental health issues. Overall, I believe that Markowitz is able to effectively achieve his purpose. He finishes the article in a very moving way, stating that patients continue to commit suicide despite the best available treatments.