Author: David Tuller
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Lowenstein’s Guardian Opinion; Eliot Smith’s Post-NICE View; Tack’s Take on Blinding Study
The Guardian has published a lot of nonsense about Long COVID and has provided a platform for people who argue that robust manly thoughts are the path to recovery. Of course, it also published George Monbiot’s powerful columns on the topic, including his rebuttal of silly accusations that he was triggering more Long COVID cases…
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Did the IBS Trial Really Show that Web-Based CBT Offered Significant Clinical Effectiveness?
I wrote some posts last year about the ACTIB trial–a major study of telephone-delivered and web-delivered cognitive behavior therapy (TCBT and WCBT) for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Contrary to how the results have been framed by those with reputational and financial interests in promoting them, the study demonstrated that WCBT did not provide clinically significant…
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Null Outcomes Presented as Success in Yet Another CBT Trial from Prof Trudie Chalder
Trudie Chalder, a professor of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) at King’s College London, has recently published yet another high-profile paper: the main results for “efficacy” from a trial of CBT for patients with so-called “persistent physical symptoms” (PPS) in secondary care. As usual with this group of investigators, things haven’t turned out well. But despite…
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#MEAction’s Chronic Illness Survey; Patients’ Research Informs CDC’s Long-COVID Advice
New survey to assess links between chronic conditions Jaime Seltzer, #MEAction’s Director of Scientific & Medical Outreach, has been pretty busy lately. This week, she appeared on a panel at the World Health Organization’s Long COVID webinar—alongside no less than the distinguished and always affable Professor Sir Simon Wessely. Seltzer has also just been named…
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More Disinformation from Professor White in Journal of Psychosomatic Research
The Journal of Psychosomatic Research seems to be suffering from some sort of identity crisis. Earlier this year, the editor and his two immediate predecessors published an admirable editorial in which they noted the serious risk of bias in subjective outcomes in studies that are not rigorously blinded. Yet the journal’s editorial advisory board is…
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Norway Rejects New Clinical Trial of Woo-Woo Lightning Process
In a welcome display of scientific acumen, Norwegian research ethics authorities have rejected a proposed study of the woo-woo called the Lightning Process as a treatment for ME/CFS. Since Norway generally appears to be a hotbed of biopsychosocial thinking, this excellent decision is a bit of a surprise. It follows a heated public debate about…
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Journal Editorial Calls for Caution in Exercise-Based Rehab Programs for Long COVID
The Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy recently published an editorial called “Humility and Acceptance: Working Within Our Limits With Long COVID and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.” The editorial emerged from a collaboration between rehabilitation specialists and patients, mostly from Canada. It confronts the conundrum of whether those experiencing what is called Long…
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More Letters about Professor Anthony David’s Mis-Citations of Key Study on Costs of MUS
I have been in correspondence with the journal Psychological Medicine in my efforts to get it to correct an undisputed factual era related to the cost of so-called “medically unexplained symptoms” (MUS). After three weeks, the journal’s co-editor-in-chief, Professor Robin Murray, finally alerted me on May 4th that the authors “have agreed” to a correction–as…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…