Author: David Tuller
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A Letter Regarding Inflated Prevalence Rates for Functional Neurological Disorder
I have posted previously about how papers on functional neurological disorder (FND) have routinely mis-cited a seminal 2010 study in asserting that the diagnosis is the second-most-common presentation at neurology clinics, with a rate of 16%. In fact, the 2010 study found that only 5.5% had FND, the new name for the antiquated Freudian construct…
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Dr Binita Kane on Kids with Long Covid
Physician Binita Kane, a lung specialist in Manchester, England, and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester’s School of Biological Sciences, has been outspoken on the subject of long Covid in children. Her passion about the issue has been fueled by her own daughter’s struggle with prolonged symptoms after an acute coronavirus infection.…
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Psychologist Brian Hughes Discusses His New Book, “A Conceptual History of Psychology”
My friend and colleague Brian Hughes, a professor of psychology at the University of Galway in Ireland, recently published his latest book—“A Conceptual History of Psychology: The Mind Through Time.” Rather than dating the field of psychology to the creation and growth of university departments of psychology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,…
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Dutch CBT Study for Long Covid Proves that Unblinded Studies with Subjective Outcomes Generate Positive Reports
Three years ago, I wrote a blog post about a problematic Dutch study that had been funded by a major health agency and was being led by Hans Knoop, a professor of medical psychology at Amsterdam University Medical Centers. The study sought to test whether a course of cognitive behavior therapy starting months after a…
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Questions About the Prevalence of Functional Neurological Disorder and the Research on Hoover’s Sign for Functional Leg Weakness
(This is a long-ish post. Sorry! It covers two complicated issues. I want to thank an intrepid source for help with this.) I have great sympathy for patients diagnosed with functional neurological disorder (FND). Their symptoms can be seriously disabling and their plight has long been neglected and dismissed by the medical establishment. When I…
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A Day in the Life of Anil van der Zee
It is May 12th–ME International Awareness Day. (Or ME/CFS International Awareness Day if you’re the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Washington, DC, #MEAction and Body Politic have organized a protest and press conference “to demand bold, urgent governmental action for the millions of people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), Long COVID, and…
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Mt Sinai’s David Putrino on Long Covid and Functional Neurological Disorder
David Putrino is a neuroscientist and physical therapist at New York’s Mt Sinai Health System, where he is director of rehabilitation innovation. Over the last three years, he has worked extensively with patients experiencing prolonged symptoms after an acute bout of Covid-19, or what has become known as long Covid (LC). Last spring, I interviewed…
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“Long Haul” Author Ryan Prior on Why Long Covid Is a “Political” Term and Related Stuff
Last month, The Nation published a wide-ranging overview of the impact of long Covid on the United States by Fiona Lowenstein and Ryan Prior. Called The Long Covid Revolution, the article proposed a number of steps for addressing the fallout and highlighted the critical role of grass-roots patient movements in pushing for change. Lowenstein is…
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Dutch Agency Awards Big Biomedical ME/CFS Grant to Judith Rosmalen, Professor of Psychosomatic Medicine
*April is crowdfunding month at UC Berkeley. If you like my work, consider making a tax-deductible donation to Berkeley’s School of Public Health to support the Trial By Error project: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/37217 On Tuesday, ZonMw announced the first grant recipients in its program of “biomedical research on ME/CFS”—the initial round of awards from the €11.6 million allocated…
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Dutch Agency to Announce ME/CFS Research Awards After Committee Resignation of Key Patient Advocate
ZonMw is an independent Dutch organization that receives significant government funding for a variety of healthcare-related research projects. On April 25th—tomorrow—it is expected to announce the recipients of €11.6 million in grants for ME/CFS research. This announcement regarding ZonMw’s ME/CFS program is the result of a lengthy process that began ten years ago with a…
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Some Recent Long Covid Articles from STAT/MuckRock, The Atlantic, and Nieman Reports
*April is crowdfunding month at UC Berkeley. If you like my work, consider making a tax-deductible donation to Berkeley’s School of Public Health to support the Trial By Error project: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/37217 STAT and MuckRock co-publish investigative report slamming NIH’s RECOVER initiatve Earlier this month, I wrote about the problem of exercise studies for long Covid that…
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Professors Crawley, Chalder & Colleagues Investigate Pediatric Long Covid in Yet Another Study with a Stupid Acronym
*April is crowdfunding month at UC Berkeley. If you like my work, consider making a tax-deductible donation to Berkeley’s School of Public Health to support the Trial By Error project: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/37217 No human being should ever have to read as many papers as I have from Professor Esther Crawley, Bristol University’s methodologically and ethically challenged pediatrician,…