[icandoit]

Mental health isn't a strictly subjective experience though. You can measure days called-in-sick. You can measure suicide count.

Cause and effect isn't necessary to reduce harm. You with me? It's nice to have certainly, but it is not required.

Imagine that I am a friend of yours. I tell you that my child is depressed and the doctor suggests pill1, it makes my child more lethargic. We try pill2 and the depression is gone.

I tell you that I am happy with the results of pill2 and that while I am interested in how it works and potential long-term consequences, I'm happy staying on pill2.

Is this imagined parent strictly better than a parent that refuses to try any pill until convinced of its mechanism and success? I would say yes.

Observation is the workhorse of the scientific paradigm, not idealized experimentation. The quantity, and thus value, of Inductive evidence is greater than that of Deductive evidence.

[squish78]

This scientific paradigm only is able to describe a treatment, it fails to diagnose a specific cause

[icandoit]

The value of a treatment can be measured in lives saved. Causes (where no treatment is implied) can only be measured in ink on paper.

Which would you value in your medical care professional?

Measure what you value and optimize for it. Why do this devils advocate stuff?

[squish78]

I suppose I'm advocating for prevention instead of treatment and what the ideal conditions would be for good mental health so that treatment could be avoided in the first place.