Trial By Error

Year: 2020

  • FITNET-NHS Falls Short in Recruitment Drive

    Professor Esther Crawley, Bristol University’s methodologically and ethically challenged pediatrician and star researcher, has weighed in with an interim analysis of FITNET-NHS, her trial of online cognitive behavior therapy for adolescents with what she calls CFS/ME. Poor Professor Crawley! Despite her ambitious goal of enrolling a whopping 734 participants, early recruitment fell way below expectations.…

  • More CBT Research from Sir Simon and Professor Chalder

    (*Thanks to the the very informed discussion–and discussants–on the Science For ME forum for alerting me to this study and its many problems!) In 2011, Professor Trudie Chalder declared at a press conference for the high-profile PACE trial that twice as many chronic fatigue syndrome patients who received cognitive behavior therapy and graded exercise therapy…

  • Recent Posts on Dutch Stuff from Simon McGrath and Lou Corsius

    Last week I wrote about the questionable decision by Dutch health funders to support a new research project from Professor Hans Knoop, a high-profile member of the CBT/GET ideological brigades. Although full details were not available, the project appeared to presume that post-Covid syndrome patients could benefit from cognitive restructuring designed to prevent them from…

  • And Now–No Surprise–CBT for Post-Covid Fatigue

    Old habits die hard. So do bad ideas. Especially when these old habits and bad ideas have formed the basis for prominent academic and medical careers in the UK and the Netherlands. In the UK, Professor Trudie Chalder of King’s College London has advised patients with prolonged fatigue after an acute bout of Covid-19 that…

  • From UK’s National Health Service, “Your COVID Recovery”

    In the UK, the National Health Service has launched a website called “Your COVID Recovery,” part of its strategy for coping with the after-effects of the coronavirus pandemic. This effort is geared toward “supporting your recovery after COVID-19.” In other words, it appears to be targeting the “long-haulers,” as those experiencing lingering symptoms after an…

  • Some Stuff to Read and Watch From Rivka, Natalie & Anil

    Massachussetts writer Rivka Solomon has had moderate* [I initially wrote “severe,” and Rivka corrected me.] ME for many years but still manages to get out there (metaphorically) and organize lots of stuff. A couple of years ago, she arranged a talk for me to give about the PACE trial debacle at a Boston-area hospital. She’s…

  • Disinformation About Treatments for Post-Covid Syndrome

    Professor Trudie Chalder is a lead investigator of a series of studies of rehabilitative interventions for so-called “medically unexplained symptoms” that have failed to meet expectations but have nevertheless been promoted as demonstrating treatment success. The piece of crap known as the PACE trial is a prime example. Most famously, Professor Chalder declared at the…

  • Columbia Experts Urge BMJ to Retract Problem-Plagued Study

    On Thursday, Professors Vincent Racaniello and Mady Hornig, both from Columbia University, wrote to BMJ’s research integrity coordinator. I have been corresponding with BMJ, and specifically the research integrity coordinator, about the Norwegian study of cognitive behavior therapy combined with music therapy as a treatment for chronic fatigue in adolescents after acute EBV infection (known…

  • Another Letter About BMJ’s Music Therapy Study

    I am still waiting for answers from BMJ about the Norwegian study of cognitive behavior therapy plus music therapy for treatment of chronic fatigue in adolescents after mononucleosis. The study was published in BMJ Paediatrics Open. I have written about it here. This morning I sent the following letter to the BMJ research integrity coordinator…

  • No Evidence for CBT and Other “Conversion Disorder” Therapies

    I have recently written critically about the CODES trial of cognitive behavior therapy as a treatment for the phenomena that have long been called “psychogenic non-epileptic seizures” but that some neurologists and psychologists are trying to rebrand as “dissociative seizures.” (Many people understandably find it offensive to be told they have a “psychogenic” disorder; perhaps…

  • NICE on Exercise and Post-Covid Syndrome

    As post-covid syndrome has emerged as a major public health concern, so has the likelihood that members of the biopsychosocial ideological brigades will roll out their typical interventions for the “long-haulers”–patients suffering from profound exhaustion and other symptoms for many weeks and months after getting infected with the coronavirus. The situation has created an unforeseen…

  • Excellent News Coverage of UK Genetics Study in The Times

    Note: The DecodeME team held a Facebook Q-and-A this week. If you want more information about the study, you can watch the video here. Two major UK government funding agencies recently announced grants totalling £3.2 million to support a major genetics study of ME. Whatever the long-term findings of DecodeME, spearheaded by the CFS/ME Research…