Trial By Error, by David Tuller
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BMJ Has Corrected the REGAIN Trial Paper–But Not the Editorial or Systematic Review Touting REGAIN’s Findings
Last February, The BMJ published a paper called “Clinical effectiveness of an online supervised group physical and mental health rehabilitation programme for adults with post-covid-19 condition (REGAIN study): multicentre randomised controlled trial,” from McGregor et al. The study purported to have proven that this multi-disciplinary intervention was “clinically effective” in reducing symptoms associated with Long…
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Video of October Talk in Ireland on How “Biopsychosocial” Research on ME, Long Covid, and Related Illnesses Harms Patients
In October, I spent 10 days traveling around Ireland and giving a talk called “Bad Science, Bad Medicine: How Flawed Biopsychosocial Studies on ME, Long Covid, etc Harm Patients.” (I wrote about the trip here.) I came as a guest of the Irish ME/CFS Association, which had previously arranged similar tours with two physicians who…
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Some Things I’ve Read Recently–Long Covid and Fertility Issues, Psychotherapy Ethics, How to Fake Your Results
It’s been a slow period. Here are a few things I’ve read recently… “The pandemic’s untold fertility story” While Long Covid disproportionately affects women, its impact on their reproductive lives has not received the attention the issue deserves. Recently, Australia’s ABC News addressed the issue with a moving piece called “The pandemic’s untold fertility story,”…
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Cochrane Continues Telling ME/CFS Patients to Go F–k Themselves
Update/Correction: Below, I initially wrote that Cochrane was lying in describing the update plan as a “pilot project.” However, it turns out that the organization did describe its plan to engage community partners as a “pilot project.” Here’s the statement from March, 2020: “Cochrane is conducting a pilot project for engaging stakeholders (such as consumers,…
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Cochrane Tells ME/CFS Patients to Go F–k Themselves
Cochrane has just given the finger to the international ME/CFS community. After jerking everyone around and promising for five years to conduct a new review of exercise interventions for the illness, the organization abruptly abandoned that commitment this week. On Monday, Cochrane posted the following message on its website: “In 2019, Cochrane published an amended…
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Trail By Error: Agencies Respond to Coroner’s Report in Boothby O’Neill Inquest
The British government, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), NHS England, and others have responded to Deborah Archer, the coroner in the case of 27-year-old Maeve Boothby O’Neill, who died in 2021 from complications of ME after three hospitalizations failed to halt her decline. At the same time, the Royal Devon University…
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Letter to BMJ Editor Seeking Correction in New Review of Interventions for Long Covid
The BMJ recently published a review of interventions for Long Covid that–surprise!–recommended CBT and a rehabilitation program as treatments. The review is full of holes. I have focused on one in particular. The review relies for its rehabilitation recommendation on an earlier BMJ study–even though that study has itself already been corrected for having misrepresented…
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Yet Again BMJ Recommends CBT and Exercise for Long Covid
What is going on at The BMJ? In May, the journal corrected an obvious error in a paper about a prominent Long Covid mental and physical rehabilitation trial called REGAIN. The trial was conducted among patients who had been hospitalized for Covid-19, but key sections of the paper generalized the findings to all Long Covid…
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Canadian Group Seeks Feedback on Recommendations for Exercise and CBT for Long Covid
A group called Canadian Guidelines for Post COVID-19 Condition (CAN-PCC) has released a new set of draft recommendations related to preventing, diagnosing and treating what is commonly called Long Covid. The current list of nine draft recommendations includes exercise and cognitive behavior therapy, which has understandably raised concerns among advocates for both Long Covid and…
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Interview with Karen Hargrave, Co-Founder of #ThereForME
Karen Hargrave is co-founder of an advocacy campaign called #ThereForME, which was launched this past summer to draw public awareness to the UK’s lack of care and treatment and to call “for an NHS [National Health Service] that’s there for people with ME and Long Covid.” The campaign has drawn significant media attention, especially in…
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My Letter to BMJ Seeking Correction to Editorial on REGAIN Trial of Mental-and-Physical-Health Rehab for Long Covid
I have recovered sufficiently from my post-election coma to send off another of my irritating letters to journals–this one to The BMJ. As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, The BMJ has corrected a major paper: “Clinical effectiveness of an online supervised group physical and mental health rehabilitation programme for adults with post-covid-19…
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Professor Chris Ponting on “Replicated Blood-Based Biomarkers” for ME in Big Data Pre-Print Study
Along with several colleagues, Professor Chris Ponting, a geneticist at the University of Edinburgh and a leading ME/CFS researcher, recently posted a pre-print called “Replicated blood-based biomarkers for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis not explicable by inactivity.” (A pre-print is a paper that has not yet been formally peer-reviewed.) For this analysis, the investigators examined data for more…