Trial By Error, by David Tuller
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Lancet Journal Publishes My Letter Challenging Claims on Exercise and Long COVID
Last year, eClinicalMedicine, a journal in the Lancet stable, published an article called “Effects of therapeutic interventions on long COVID: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” The paper reported that, according to “high-certainty evidence,” exercise training could improve health and “should be prioritized”. These conclusions were preposterous, for multiple reasons. (I wrote about it here…
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Article in New Scientist Questions Value of Exercise for Long COVID (and quotes me)
When it comes to exercise and Long COVID, investigators have routinely claimed success for their interventions–and many news articles have followed their lead in covering the issue. Most reporters don’t have the time or bandwidth to look more deeply and challenge that narrative—in particular, by checking out whether the much-touted trials really live up to…
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Pushback Against Psychologizing on BBC and in Medical Journal
BBC Radio 4 highlights criticism of interview with neurologist and author Suzanne O’Sullivan In March, neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan spoke on a BBC Radio 4 podcast called Radical, hosted by journalist Amol Rajan. The title of the episode was “Over-Diagnosis: Are Too Many People Being Given Medical Labels?” The discussion triggered some dismay from listeners because…
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Two Interviews–My Latest Appearance on “Tub Talks with Damon”; Julie Rehmeyer on her NYT “Modern Love” Piece
Once again, I get into Damon’s tub “Tub Talks with Damon” is a series hosted by Damon Jacobs, a sex-positive therapist and advocate for gay men’s and queer people’s health. And yes, doing a tub talk involves climbing into Damon’s tub–filled with warm water and bubbles–to discuss the topic at hand. Check out his channel–lots…
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How Many Awful Papers Can Trudie Chalder Produce?
How many bad papers can Trudie Chalder, King’s College London’s factually and mathematically challenged professor of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), churn out? The woman’s name seems attached to an inexhaustible supply of scientific drek. Just this month I critiqued two papers (here and here) for which she served as a co-author. Both publications were of…
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Some Things I’ve Read Recently…
Julie Rehmeyer explores a friend’s death in New York Times’ Modern Love column It is hard to imagine having to cope with the aftermath of someone dying of suicide in your home. But that was the task confronting Julie Rehmeyer, a writer and longtime ME/CFS patient who has eloquently explored her illness in a book…
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Are Claims of “Recovery” from Psycho-Behavioral Interventions a Form of Bait-and-Switch ?
In a medical context, what does “recovery” mean? A pretty standard understanding is this one offered by The Free Dictionary: “a return to a normal or healthy condition.” If experts suggest a treatment leads to “recovery,” it would be reasonable for patients to expect, well, “recovery”—that is, to be free of symptoms and capable of…
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Professor Chalder Downgrades Definition of “Recovery”
President Trump’s words and actions are routinely mind-boggling but never surprising, given past experience. The same is true of papers co-authored by Trudie Chalder, King’s College London’s mathematically and factually challenged professor of cognitive behavior therapy. In a recent article, she holds true to form. In “Recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome: a reflexive thematic analysis…
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Claims Built on Fraudulent Trials Should Be Ignored
When researchers cite fraudulent studies in support of their claims, it is best not to take anything they write at face value. That is certainly the case with a recent paper titled “Persistent physical symptoms not explained by structural abnormalities or disease processes: a primary care approach to promote recovery,” published earlier this month in…
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Is Professor Crawley Retired from Bristol, or Isn’t She?
Professor Esther Crawley, the methodically and ethically challenged pediatrician and former grant queen at the University of Bristol, retired from medical practice and, apparently, from academia at some point in the recent past. So why does her name still appear on websites as if she were an active participant in research and clinical care? I…
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Norway Disability Case Exposes Flaws in Draft Guideline for “Long-Term Fatigue–including ME/CFS”
A recent disability case in Norway provides a good example of why the draft of a new guideline for “long-term fatigue—including ME/CFS” is so problematic. As I reported last week, the draft guideline, produced by the Norwegian Directorate of Health*, generally favors the biopsychosocial approach. The guideline offers few specifics about management and treatment of…
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Why is Professor Crawley Still on the COFFI Steering Committee?
Several years ago, the leaders of the biopsychosocial ideological brigades decided to create the Collaborative On Fatigue and related symptoms Following Infection, or COFFI. According to its website, COFFI’s “overarching aim” is “to investigate factors influencing the development of long-term symptoms (in particular fatigue) following certain infectious diseases.” Akershus University Hospital (AHUS) in Norway is…