Tag: BMJ
-
BMJ’s Strange Response to Our Letter of Concern Regarding “Living Systematic Review” of Long Covid Interventions
In December, I sent a letter, co-signed by 18 colleagues, to The BMJ‘s editor in chief, Dr Kamran Abbasi. The letter requested a correction to a problematic study called “Interventions for the management of long covid (post-covid condition): living systematic review.” According to this review, there is “moderate certainty evidence” that a physical and mental…
-
Professor Edwards’ Letter to BMJ on the Cochrane Mess
The Cochrane mess, which I wrote about the other day, is threatening to take on a life of its own. Perhaps Cochrane thinks the fuss over the big Christmas “fuck you” it delivered to members of the ME/CFS community will blow over quickly. That could happen, I suppose, but I suspect this issue will continue…
-
BMJ Has Corrected the REGAIN Trial Paper–But Not the Editorial or Systematic Review Touting REGAIN’s Findings
Last February, The BMJ published a paper called “Clinical effectiveness of an online supervised group physical and mental health rehabilitation programme for adults with post-covid-19 condition (REGAIN study): multicentre randomised controlled trial,” from McGregor et al. The study purported to have proven that this multi-disciplinary intervention was “clinically effective” in reducing symptoms associated with Long…
-
Letter to BMJ Editor Seeking Correction in New Review of Interventions for Long Covid
The BMJ recently published a review of interventions for Long Covid that–surprise!–recommended CBT and a rehabilitation program as treatments. The review is full of holes. I have focused on one in particular. The review relies for its rehabilitation recommendation on an earlier BMJ study–even though that study has itself already been corrected for having misrepresented…
-
Yet Again BMJ Recommends CBT and Exercise for Long Covid
What is going on at The BMJ? In May, the journal corrected an obvious error in a paper about a prominent Long Covid mental and physical rehabilitation trial called REGAIN. The trial was conducted among patients who had been hospitalized for Covid-19, but key sections of the paper generalized the findings to all Long Covid…
-
REGAIN Team Responds to Criticism with Unconvincing Defenses of Methodological Missteps
In recent weeks, I have been urging The BMJ to correct a flawed University of Warwick trial of an online mental and physical health rehab program for people with prolonged symptoms at least three months after hospitalization for Covid-19. The primary outcome was health-related quality of life, assessed with a measure called the PROPr score.…
-
Another Letter Seeking Correction of Bogus “Clinically Effective” Claims from REGAIN Trial
Last month, I sent a letter to Dr Abbasi, the editor-in-chief of The BMJ, about an egregious and arguably fraudulent claim in the REGAIN trial—an investigation of a Long Covid physical and mental health rehabilitation program. Several other experts co-signed the letter. The journal asked us to send in a rapid response. We declined, on…
-
My Letter to Lead REGAIN Trial Investigator Seeking Correction of Bogus Claims of Clinical Effectiveness
Two weeks ago, I sent a letter to The BMJ on behalf of myself and 12 colleagues seeking a correction in a study published last month. The study, called Clinical effectiveness of an online supervised group physical and mental health rehabilitation programme for adults with post-covid-19 condition (REGAIN study): multicentre randomised controlled trial,” claimed that the intervention under investigation had been…
-
We Asked BMJ to Correct a Paper; BMJ Requested a Rapid Response; We Have Declined
Leave a Comment / By David Tuller / 24 March 2024 Two weeks ago, I sent a letter to The BMJ on behalf of myself and 12 colleagues seeking a correction in a study published last month. The study, called Clinical effectiveness of an online supervised group physical and mental health rehabilitation programme for adults with post-covid-19 condition (REGAIN study): multicentre randomised controlled trial,” claimed…
-
Letter to BMJ Seeking Correction in Study of Long Covid Physical-and-Mental Rehabilitation Program
Last month, The BMJ published a study of a rehab intervention for Long Covid in which the authors made claims that were not borne out by the data. The study was called “Clinical effectiveness of an online supervised group physical and mental health rehabilitation programme for adults with post-covid-19 condition (REGAIN study): multicentre randomised controlled…
-
If Professor Crawley’s ACT Study Was Peer Reviewed, Where Are the Peer Reviews?
Yesterday, I wrote a blog about a just-published but already out-dated conference abstract from a team led by Professor Esther Crawley, Bristol University’s methodologically and ethically challenged pediatrician and grant magnet. After I tweeted about it, I heard from Naomi Harvey, a zoologist, who said she’d written to BJPsychOpen about the abstract’s flaws. Hopefully, she—and…
-
The Times Fact-Checks BMJ on NICE Committee; My Letter to BMJ’s Fiona Godlee
It is not often that a major news organization fact-checks BMJ, a leading medical publisher, in real time. But that’s what happened last week when The Times pushed back against biased BMJ reporting about the committee charged by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) with developing a new clinical guidance for…