Trial By Error

Tag: BMJ

  • Update on BMJ’s CBT-Music Therapy Study (h/t Steinkopf and Tack)

    I have written multiple posts this year about a Norwegian study of cognitive behavior therapy plus music therapy as a treatment for chronic fatigue after acute EBV infection (aka mononucleosis and glandular fever). The study, published in April by BMJ Paediatrics Open, was rife with methodological and ethical flaws. It should not have been accepted in the…

  • BMJ Retracts Music Therapy-CBT Study, But…

    *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 I have written many posts this year about a Norwegian study of cognitive behavior therapy plus music…

  • 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…

  • 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.…

  • Columbia Experts Urge BMJ to Retract Problem-Plagued Study

    On Thursday, Professors Vincent Racaniello and Mady Hornig, both from Columbia University, wrote to BMJ’s research integrity coordinator. I have been corresponding with BMJ, and specifically the research integrity coordinator, about the Norwegian study of cognitive behavior therapy combined with music therapy as a treatment for chronic fatigue in adolescents after acute EBV infection (known…

  • Another Letter About BMJ’s Music Therapy Study

    I am still waiting for answers from BMJ about the Norwegian study of cognitive behavior therapy plus music therapy for treatment of chronic fatigue in adolescents after mononucleosis. The study was published in BMJ Paediatrics Open. I have written about it here. This morning I sent the following letter to the BMJ research integrity coordinator…

  • BMJ Responds to Appeals About Norway’s CBT-Music Therapy Study

    Earlier this week, I sent a nudge to Professor Imti Choonara, editor-in-chief of BMJ Paediatrics Open, and Fiona Godlee, editorial director of BMJ, about a problematic “feasibility study” published a few months ago. That followed a letter two weeks ago, to which I had not received a response. Previous posts on this issue are here…

  • 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.…

  • 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…

  • Tack’s Take on BMJ’s CBT-Music Therapy “Feasibility Study”

    I have always made it clear that I pay attention when smart patients assess bad research. That’s how I stumbled into this whole mess in the first place–by reading what patients were writing about the PACE trial. (In that case, I at first dismissed the concerns when I read about how participants could get worse…

  • My Letter to Peer Reviewer of BMJ’s CBT-Music Therapy Paper

    I have recently written a few posts–here, here and here–about a study in BMJ Paediatrics Open that appears to be marred by multiple methodological and ethical problems. This is certainly not a one-time occurrence when it comes to BMJ journals. Last week, I sent a letter to the study’s senior author inviting him to send me his response…