Year: 2021
-
My Letters to Psychosomatics Journal About Prof White’s Misleading GETSET Paper
In early April, I wrote about a study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research—a one-year follow-up of the GETSET trial of self-help graded exercise therapy for ME/CFS. The investigators had previously reported short-term benefits for the intervention. In this new paper, despite no benefits of the intervention over regular care, the team reported success…
-
In Guardian Column, Professor Pariante Parrots Standard Biopsychosocial Nonsense
On Tuesday (four days ago), The Guardian published an opinion piece from Professor Carmine Pariante titled “Long Covid is very far from ‘all in the mind’–but psychology can still help us to treat it.” The article is the latest from a member of the biopsychosocial ideological brigades to demonstrate what has long been apparent—those who…
-
Professor David’s Third Mis-Citation of Seminal Study of “Medically Unexplained Symptoms”
*April is crowdfunding month at Berkeley. I conduct this project as a senior fellow in public health and journalism at the university’s Center for Global Public Health. If you would like to support the project with a donation to Berkeley (tax-deductible for US taxpayers), here’s the place: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/25504 I have recently blogged about the multiple mis-citations…
-
Trial By Errors: Why Have Experts in MUS Spent Ten Years Mis-Citing a Study about Costs to the NHS?
What does it mean that the top investigators in a field of research have collectively and consistently misrepresented a seminal figure in their purported domain of expertise? I’m talking about all those who present themselves as authorities on the topic of so-called “medically unexplained symptoms” (MUS) but have found it difficult to accurately cite a…
-
More on the Lightning Process and the Science Media Centre’s Collusion With UK Journalists
*April is crowdfunding month at Berkeley. I conduct this project as a senior fellow in public health and journalism at the university’s Center for Global Public Health. If you would like to support the project with a donation to Berkeley (tax-deductible for US taxpayers), here’s the place: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/25504 My story on the Lightning Process this week,…
-
Do the “Vast Majority” of Lightning Process Participants Achieve “Lasting Change”?
Coda Story is an excellent news organization focused on international stories related to the misuse of science and technology, among other topics. Today, it published a piece of mine about the training program called the Lightning Process. Sites devoted to the Lightning Process are full of tales of recovery from prolonged illness. I included one…
-
Northwestern Law Professor Steven Lubet Corresponds with McMaster U. About That WSJ Op-Ed
A recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece accused an apparently powerful “queer feminist wellness collective” of causing an international wave of mental illness, which is being expressed as reports of persistent disabling symptoms after an acute bout of COVID-19. The article was written by a psychiatry resident at Canada’s McMaster University in Canada. Given the…
-
Letter to Lancet Editor Demanding Independent Investigation of PACE (Reprise from 2018)
*April is crowdfunding month at Berkeley. I conduct this project as a senior fellow in public health and journalism at the university’s Center for Global Public Health. If you would like to support the project with a donation to Berkeley (tax-deductible for US taxpayers), here’s the place: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/25504 In August, 2018, I organized an open letter…
-
My Letter to Professor Anthony David Asks Why MUS Experts Keep Misquoting a Major Study
Earlier this week, I wrote to the journal Psychological Medicine about a significant mistake in a paper on functional neurological disorders. The mistake involved a misquotation of Bermingham et al, a key 2010 analysis of the National Health Service costs associated with care for working-age people found to be “somatising.” One of Psychological Medicine‘s two…
-
PACE Team’s Work for Insurance Companies Is “Not Related” to PACE. Really? (Reprise)
When I first investigated the PACE trail in 2015, one of the features most shocking to me was the investigators’ blatant violation of a core human rights document that they had promised in their protocol to adhere to. That violation of the Declaration of Helsinki involved their failure to tell study participants about their close…
-
The World According to Sharpe
*April is crowdfunding month at Berkeley. I conduct this project as a senior fellow in public health and journalism at the university’s Center for Global Public Health. If you would like to support the project with a donation to Berkeley (tax-deductible for US taxpayers), here’s the place: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/25504 Poor Professor Michael Sharpe. The distinguished psychiatrist from…
-
Jennie Spotila Tracks Down–and Busts–an Old Tale About “Death Threats” from Patients
In early 2011, the first report of the PACE results in The Lancet drew widespread criticism from patients and advocates. Later that year, stories about unhinged, anti-science patients harassing and threatening leading researchers in the field appeared in high-profile UK outlets like BMJ and The Times. In the UK, this appears to have been orchestrated…