Author: David Tuller
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That Royal Society of Medicine Webinar on Long-Covid
*October is crowdfunding month at Berkeley. I conduct this project as a senior fellow in public health and journalism and the university’s Center for Global Public Health. If you would like to support the project, here’s the place: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/22602 Proponents of cognitive behavior therapy and graded exercise therapy as treatments for CFS, ME, or their…
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The CDC’s Stakeholder Meeting
The US Centers for Disease Control held one of its occasional briefings for ME/CFS stakeholders last week. I was unfortunately busy during that time, but #MEAction has posted a useful account of what was discussed, which you can read here. The #MEAction account includes short, helpful descriptions of a number of CDC initiatives, including efforts…
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More CBT Research from Sir Simon and Professor Chalder, Part 2
And now Professor Sir Simon Wessely has popped up again to present more misinformation in a paper produced along with his longtime King’s College London colleague, Professor Trudie Chalder. I wrote about this paper last month, when it appeared in a pre-print version after having been accepted for publication by the Journal of the Royal…
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A Short Talk for UK Docs and Researchers
This morning (Wednesday) I gave an informal online talk about the piece of crap known as the PACE trial to a small group of UK doctors, researchers and others. The group had been pulled together by Paul Garner, a physician and professor of infectious diseases at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Garner has written several…
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UK Docs Speak Up on Long-Covid; Mayo Shifts Gears (a Little)
Doctors in UK urge caution on long-Covid exercise advice Despite BMJ’s current dereliction of key editorial oversight responsibilities, it has provided a forum for members of the medical community with Covid-19 and post-Covid symptoms to express their strong views. The reference to current dereliction of key editorial responsibilities involves a case I and others have…
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Some Stuff about Long-Covid, BMJ and ME
It is clear that there will be much grappling going forward over the similarities and differences between long-Covid and ME (or CFS, or ME/CFS, or whatever this illness or cluster of illnesses is being called). The two entities overlap in some ways, but no one should conflate them. We are past the pandemic’s half-year mark.…
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What Is the Dynamic Neural Retraining System?
The Lightning Process, which I have covered extensively, isn’t the only program out there making big assertions about its impact on how the brain functions. These assertions piggyback on the emerging science of neuroplasticity and related concepts and involve the brain’s capacity to generate new neural pathways when it adapts to changes in stimuli. The…
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The Lightning Process Strikes Again
The Lightning Process was founded more than two decades ago by Phil Parker, a British Tarot reader and specialist in auras and spiritual guides. The LP, as it is often called, could be described as “a neuro-physiological training programme based on self-coaching, concepts from Positive Psychology, Osteopathy and Neuro Linguistic Programming,” as Parker and colleagues…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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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…