Trial By Error

Category: ME/CFS

  • 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…

  • 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.…

  • 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…

  • A Response from Dagbladet

    The Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet, taking a page from prestigious UK news organizations, has recently published a series of articles portraying ME patients as anti-scientific and belligerent. As I noted in a letter to Dagbladet two weeks ago, the journalist also misrepresented my academic and professional credentials. Since I didn’t hear back, I recently posted both…

  • A Couple of Blog Posts Worth Reading

    I’ve been writing about so-called “medically unexplained symptoms,” or MUS, for the last couple of years. Much of that has come in the form of critiques of specific studies making excessive claims about the healing powers of cognitive behavior therapy. Recently, a blogger named Goodelf has posted a couple of revealing posts about the overall…

  • Letter to BMJ Paediatrics Open About that CBT-Music Therapy Study

    UPDATE: I sent the following correction to Dr Choonara shortly after sending the letter of concern. Dear Dr Choonara: I wanted to make a slight correction in point #3 below. The first sentence should have read: “Why was the outcome of recovery not mentioned in the trial registration and statistical analysis plan yet still highlighted…

  • Two Letters to Dagbladet About Its ME Coverage

    In recent weeks, the Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet has published a series of articles about ME, which it also calls CFS/ME. These articles have promoted the use of the Lightning Process as an intervention, criticized patients and the Norwegian ME Association for expressing opinions about the Lightning Process and cognitive behavior therapy, and engaged in multiple…