Trial By Error

Year: 2020

  • Nudge for BMJ About Music Therapy; Letter to “Health Anxiety” Expert

    I have written two more letters and have posted them below. The first letter is a nudge to BMJ’s research integrity department, which missed a deadline this week for providing me with an update on the status of that music therapy study from Norway. You know, the one that started off as a fully powered…

  • Now There’s CBT for ‘Health Anxiety’ in CFS

    In late December, the International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology published an article called “Prevalence and treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and co-morbid severe health anxiety.” This paper, from investigators at the University of Bath and Oxford University, actually included two separate studies documenting the purported relationship between a construct called “health anxiety”…

  • A Few Interesting Studies

    I’m always highlighting dodgy research from the CBT/GET ideological brigades. These studies are fun to tear apart (metaphorically and sometimes literally), but it’s also nice to be able to recommend some decent research. Below are a few recent papers that I have found to be of interest. All of them were published by the journal…

  • My Letter to Author of CODES Commentary

    Earlier today, I sent the following letter to Dr David Perez, a neurologist and psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr Perez, an expert on functional neurological disorders, wrote a commentary for Lancet Psychiatry that accompanied the publication of the results for CODES, a major study of cognitive behavior therapy as a treatment for…

  • CODES Trial Commentary Promotes ‘Eminence-Based Medicine’

    By all accounts, the recently published CODES trial was the most authoritative study to date of whether cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) was an effective treatment for so-called dissociative seizures–a point confirmed in a commentary accompanying the paper in Lancet Psychiatry. Unfortunately, the CODES investigators and the commentary author seem to interpret the null results for…

  • UK Funds Genetics Project; My Letter to CODES Investigators

    UK Funding for Major Genetics ME Study Two of the UK’s largest public funding agencies announced this week that they would provide £3.2 million (around $4 million at current rates) for a study that will analyze genetic material from as many as 20,000 people to search for underlying causes of myalgic encephalomyelitis. The Medical Research…

  • More Questions About CODES Trial of CBT for Seizures

    [*In the last paragraph, I mistakenly referred to the CODES protocol rather than the CODES statistical analysis plan. I apologize for the error.] I have recently written about CODES, the high-profile clinical trial investigating whether cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) could reduce the frequency of dissociative seizures, also known as  psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. The trial, published…

  • BMJ Responds to Appeals About Norway’s CBT-Music Therapy Study

    Earlier this week, I sent a nudge to Professor Imti Choonara, editor-in-chief of BMJ Paediatrics Open, and Fiona Godlee, editorial director of BMJ, about a problematic “feasibility study” published a few months ago. That followed a letter two weeks ago, to which I had not received a response. Previous posts on this issue are here…

  • Trio of Trials Shows Limits of CBT for Medically Unexplained Symptoms

    Lancet Psychiatry recently published the results of a high-profile trial of cognitive behavior therapy as a treatment for so-called dissociative seizures, also known as psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. The trial, nicknamed CODES, found that CBT had no impact on seizure frequency–the primary outcome. The average number of seizures per month dropped in both the treatment and…

  • A Letter to KCL, Another Letter to BMJ

    Last week, I wrote about a troubling press release issued by King’s College London regarding a major study of cognitive behavioural therapy as a treatment for so-called dissociative seizures. On Friday, I sent a letter to the two communications people listed on the press release about the study, as well as to the corresponding author.…

  • A King’s College London Press Release Hides the Bad News

    In teaching courses on covering public health and medical issues, I have often highlighted how university press releases about studies can read like efforts at obfuscating problematic findings rather than providing an accurate account of research. A recent press release from King’s College London, about a high-profile study published by Lancet Psychiatry, is an excellent…

  • Coupla More Posts Worth Reading

    Ryan Prior is a CNN journalist who told the story of his own ME/CFS diagnosis and illness in the 2015 documentary Forgotten Plague. (I’m interviewed in the film.) On Sunday, he told the story of a friend he met as a result of the film, and the choice she made last year to end her…