Trial By Error

Year: 2015

  • Revisiting the PLoS One economics analysis of PACE

    On October 23rd, virology blog published the third installment of David Tuller’s investigative report about the PACE study of treatments for ME/CFS. In the post, Dr. Tuller demonstrated that the key finding of an economic analysis of the PACE trial, published in PLoS One in 2012, was almost certainly false. The finding–that cognitive behavior therapy […]

  • A request for data from the PACE trial

    Mr. Paul Smallcombe Records & Information Compliance Manager Queen Mary University of London Mile End Road London E1 4NS Dear Mr Smallcombe: The PACE study of treatments for ME/CFS has been the source of much controversy since the first results were published in The Lancet in 2011. Patients have repeatedly raised objections to the study’s methodology and […]

  • PACE Team’s Work for Insurance Companies Is “Not Related” to PACE. Really?

    By David Tuller, DrPH David Tuller is academic coordinator of the concurrent masters degree program in public health and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In my initial story on Virology Blog, I charged the PACE investigators with violating the Declaration of Helsinki, developed in the 1950s by the World Medical Association to protect […]

  • An open letter to Dr. Richard Horton and The Lancet

    Dr. Richard Horton The Lancet 125 London Wall London, EC2Y 5AS, UK Dear Dr. Horton: In February, 2011, The Lancet published an article called “Comparison of adaptive pacing therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, graded exercise therapy, and specialist medical care for chronic fatigue syndrome (PACE): a randomized trial.” The article reported that two “rehabilitative” approaches, cognitive behavior therapy […]

  • Why has the PACE Study’s “Sister Trial” Been “Disappeared” and Forgotten?

    By David Tuller, DrPH David Tuller is academic coordinator of the concurrent masters degree program in public health and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, the BMJ published the results of the Fatigue Intervention by Nurses Evaluation, or FINE. The investigators for this companion trial to PACE, also funded by the Medical […]

  • Did the PACE Study Really Adopt a ‘Strict Criterion’ for Recovery?

    By David Tuller, DrPH David Tuller is academic coordinator of the concurrent masters degree program in public health and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. First, some comments: When Virology Blog posted my very, very, very long investigation of the PACE trial two weeks ago, I hoped that the information would gradually leak out […]

  • David Tuller responds to the PACE investigators

    David Tuller’s three-installment investigation of the PACE trial for chronic fatigue syndrome, “Trial By Error,” has received enormous attention. Although the PACE investigators declined David’s efforts to interview them, they have now requested the right to reply. Today, virology blog posts their response to David’s story, and below, his response to their response.  According to […]

  • PACE trial investigators respond to David Tuller

    Professors Peter White, Trudie Chalder and Michael Sharpe (co-principal investigators of the PACE trial) respond to the three blog posts by David Tuller, published here on 21st, 22nd and 23rd October 2015, about the PACE trial. Overview The PACE trial was a randomized controlled trial of four non-pharmacological treatments for 641 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) attending […]

  • The Troubling Case of the PACE Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study (final installment)

    By David Tuller, DrPH David Tuller is academic coordinator of the concurrent masters degree program in public health and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.  A few years ago, Dr. Racaniello let me hijack this space for a long piece about the CDC’s persistent incompetence in its efforts to address the devastating illness the agency itself […]

  • The Troubling Case of the PACE Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study (second installment)

    By David Tuller, DrPH David Tuller is academic coordinator of the concurrent masters degree program in public health and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.  A few years ago, Dr. Racaniello let me hijack this space for a long piece about the CDC’s persistent incompetence in its efforts to address the devastating illness the agency itself […]

  • The Troubling Case of the PACE Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study

    By David Tuller, DrPH David Tuller is academic coordinator of the concurrent masters degree program in public health and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.  A few years ago, Dr. Racaniello let me hijack this space for a long piece about the CDC’s persistent incompetence in its efforts to address the devastating illness the […]