Evaluation of New York Times Stories

It's pre-production time for the course's first project: the Controversy Post-Mortem. So, to kick things off, I browsed through some New York Times articles to start getting a sense of what controversies are out there. I'm particularly interested in chemistry and medicine, which naturally led me to focus on health and science. Below, I've recapped the debate and essence of two different articles, one relating to health and another to science. These topics have several articles that overlap, so I followed the New York Times' lead when choosing how to categorize each article.

Davidy, Paul. "This is what a research paper looks like." 1/26/2016 via Google Images. CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0

First, in Science news: we're beginning to understand the possible biological causes of schizophrenia. Psychiatric disorders are notoriously difficult to pinpoint to a particular set of faulty genes or a particular malfunction in a specific bodily response. So, how did this discovery play out? Well,

• The main players were a group of neurology researchers at Harvard and Boston Children's Hospital. These were the sleuths looking to explain why abnormalities in the MHC portion of the genome correlated strongly with a risk for developing schizophrenia. Their theory, that the gene C4-A coded for proteins that pruned neural connections, helped tie together many known facts about the disease. Without their contributions, there would be no story to tell. Yet, the story isn't truly about them. They are hidden protagonists, lying behind a possible scientific discovery that is, in some ways, bigger than themselves.

• This is the story of science and how it slowly plods along, every day coming one step closer to improving people's lives. The researchers tied together disparate, seemingly unconnected facts regarding schizophrenia and made them a holistic picture with interconnected dots. For example, we knew that schizophrenia tends to develop in adolescence and is associated with fewer neurons in the frontal cortex. Their explanation, that C4-A is primarily expressed as children mature, and its effects include excessive pruning, ties these facts together. 

• There is still debate as to how close this brings us to helping patients with schizophrenia. There is common agreement, among the researchers and critics alike, that this is only one small step towards the ultimate goal of preventing schizophrenia from developing. However, some critics claimed that this helped us understand schizophrenia's root causes, but did nothing towards finding a solution. Nearly everyone mentioned in the article, however, agreed that this was one of the most important advances to understanding schizophrenia in a long time. 

What about Health? It turns out that exercise may relieve back pain to a much greater extent than commonly used orthotics. First off, to be clear, an orthotic is any external device that realigns or alters body or limb positions to improve your mobility and overall bodily function. So, who claims this, and what's the main point?

• This is a story about a systematic review that gauged whether orthotics are as effective as education or exercise in reducing the frequency of back pain episodes. There's no clear human protagonist here, because the focus is on the analysis performed. Chris Maher, though, led the review. As with any review, the data wasn't his and no original primary research was presented. Instead, his team analyzed all methodologically rigorous studies to see what conclusions the currently available studies supported. 

• The story spans many places and times. In essence, the story is supposed to capture everyone, everywhere that has had back problems and has been part of a study trying to reduce those pain symptoms. The article takes us all the way from a 1991 Swedish study showing that workouts led to 90s pop tunes significantly reduced back pain to an analysis of 23 studies using back belts, shoe orthotics, and educational seminars. All non-exercise interventions were essentially ineffective.

          In some sense, the story is about something that transcends the setting of any individu experiment. It is about helping people overcome symptoms that notoriously linger and remain untreated for years. Whether this happens in Sweden or Germany or the United States, the goals of this research are often identical. Of course, every player in this game has their own unique career ambitions, but this is not addressed in the article.

• Custom orthotics are still used ubiquitously, suggesting that this article is far from ending the debate. Lower back pain is frequently treated with braces, back belts, and insoles that redistribute plantar load. This is unlikely to change anytime soon. However, the article is trying to add its own voice to the debate by suggesting that these treatments are far less effective than physical therapists and other clinicans may believe. Instead, it hopes to add an authoritative argument in favor of treating back pain with exercise regimens. In the field of academia, debate points are often backed with plenty of data that is scrutinized by critics. So, these contenders brought a systematic review that gathered all available studies as evidence for their side of the story.