Trial By Error

Tag: CBT

  • Null Outcomes Presented as Success in Yet Another CBT Trial from Prof Trudie Chalder

    Trudie Chalder, a professor of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) at King’s College London, has recently published yet another high-profile paper: the main results for “efficacy” from a trial of CBT for patients with so-called “persistent physical symptoms” (PPS) in secondary care. As usual with this group of investigators, things haven’t turned out well. But despite…

  • Journal of Health Psychology Publishes Hughes-Tuller Critique of Wessely-Chalder CBT Claims

    What kind of researchers would publish obviously misleading figures about their favorite intervention in a study abstract? And who would make causal claims in a paper while simultaneously pointing out that the study design does not allow for causal claims? Well, it seems Professor Sir Wessely and Professor Trudie Chalder, along with three of their…

  • Hughes-Tuller Comment on Wessely-Chalder CBT Study Rejected by Journal, Posted Here

    Last fall, Professor Sir Simon Wessely and Professor Trudie Chalder were among several co-authors of a study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. The study purported to prove that years of provision of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to patients with “chronic fatigue” and “chronic fatigue syndrome” proved that the intervention was…

  • Professors Chalder and Crawley Join Forces to Push CBT for Kids

    On November 10th, the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence published a draft of new clinical guidelines for ME/CFS. The draft represented a blunt rejection of the argument that the combination of “unhelpful cognitions” and deconditioning drives the illness. Under this once-hegemonic framework, indicated therapies include cognitive behavior therapy to overcome the unhelpful cognitions…

  • FDA Approves Web-CBT for IBS; GET/CBT as Tomorrow’s “Rubbish”

    Mahana set to announce FDA approval for ineffective IBS program Earlier this year, I spent a lot of time blogging about the unethical and dishonest manner in which a San Francisco start-up called Mahana Therapeutics was promoting an eight-week web-based program of cognitive behavior therapy for patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome. The company had…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Nudge for BMJ About Music Therapy; Letter to “Health Anxiety” Expert

    I have written two more letters and have posted them below. The first letter is a nudge to BMJ’s research integrity department, which missed a deadline this week for providing me with an update on the status of that music therapy study from Norway. You know, the one that started off as a fully powered…

  • 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”…