Trial By Error, by David Tuller
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Some Thoughts About NICE
The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which develops clinical guidelines for a range of medical conditions, is currently selecting a committee to develop a new guidance for the illness it refers to as myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The new guidance will replace one written in 2007, when the organization was…
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Video of October Newry Talk, with Brian Hughes
Here’s a video of back-to-back presentations from last month in Newry, Northern Ireland. On October 2, Brian Hughes, a professor of psychology at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and I both spoke at an event organized by Hope For ME & Fibro Northern Ireland. The title of the event: “The PACE Trial: ‘The Greatest…
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How Bristol Investigators Avoided Ethical Review
I have written many posts about BMJ Open’s 2011 school absence study, which reported that school absence records could be useful in identifying children with chronic fatigue syndrome. However, for reasons not yet adequately explained, the investigators exempted the study from ethical review on the grounds that it qualified as “service evaluation.” To support the…
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An Australian Exchange with Professor Sharpe
Below is an exchange between members of the Australian ME/CFS community and Professor Michael Sharpe. The open letter from patients and advocates was prompted by a tweet this week from Professor Sharpe that many considered offensive. He has since deleted it. This post includes the initial tweet as well as the open letter and Professor…
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Yet Another Letter About the Lightning Process Study
This morning I sent the following letter to Fiona Godlee, editor-in-chief of The BMJ and editorial director of BMJ. I cc-d Carol Monaghan MP, Darren Jones MP, and Nicky Morgan MP. Dear Dr. Godlee— More than a dozen years ago, a group of leading medical journals agreed that requiring clinical trials to be prospectively registered…
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Three Years On…
Three years ago this month, Virology Blog published my 15,000-word investigation of the PACE trial, so this seems like a good time for a bit of reflection. I certainly didn’t expect this saga to drag on this long. I’ve kept at it mainly because of the UK academic and medical establishment’s unwillingness to acknowledge what’s…
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Where’s My Apology, BMJ Open?
This morning I sent the following e-mail to Dr Fiona Godlee, the editor-in-chief of The BMJ and editorial director of BMJ. I cc’d Professor Vincent Racaniello, the host of Virology Blog, and Carol Monaghan MP, who sits on the House of Commons Health and Technology Committee. Dear Dr Godlee— I am seeking an apology for…
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A Statement in Support of Cochrane
Cochrane has decided to temporarily withdraw a review of exercise therapies for the illness variously known as ME, CFS, ME/CFS and CFS/ME. The review reported that exercise therapy is effective in treating the illness—a finding that has provided unwarranted support for recommendations that patients should undergo the intervention known as graded exercise therapy. Yet Cochrane…
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My letter to organizer of 4th Columbia Psychosomatics Conference
Yesterday I sent an email to Dr. Landa who had previously written to David Tuller about the 4th Columbia Psychosomatics Conference (link to David’s post). Like David, I was unhappy about Dr. Landa’s note so I decided to write her and see if she might respond better to a Columbia colleague. Apparently my faith in…
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A Reminder about Saturday’s Columbia Protest
In my earlier post about this issue, I accurately credited #MEAction but did not specifically make clear that Saturday’s demonstration has been organized by the movement’s New York arm. I apologize for the oversight. So here’s an official New York #MEAction announcement about the event. I would be there tomorrow if I weren’t still in…
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Cochrane Decides to Withdraw Flawed Exercise Review
*The headline has been changed to indicate that Cochrane has decided to withdraw the review but had not yet done so at time of posting. Cochrane has decided to withdraw, at least for now, its fatally flawed review of exercise treatments for ME/CFS—or CFS, as the review calls the illness. This review, which reported that…
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ME/CFS is not a psychosomatic illness
W. Ian Lipkin, Director of the Center for Infection and Immunity and the Center for Solutions for ME/CFS at Columbia University, has written the following letter several days before the Fourth Annual Conference on Psychosomatics at Columbia University this weekend. The original letter can be found at this link. 18 October 2018 Dear Colleagues and Friends, The…