Tag: exercise
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More on the Canadian Long COVID Trial with Plans to Lie to Participants Receiving an Exercise Intervention
I recently posted a blog about the protocol for a Canadian Long COVID exercise trial in which the investigators proposed lying to the participants about the nature of both the study and the intervention being assessed. While acknowledging that a significant number of people with Long COVID report experiencing post-exertional malaise (PEM), the investigators appear…
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Journalist Simon Spichak on Lack of Focus on Post-Exertional Malaise in Long COVID Exercise Trials
According to the headline of a recent article in The Sick Times, “less than 20% of Long COVID trials involving exercise even mention post-exertional malaise.” The news organization analyzed the registration records for Long COVID clinical trials and found that only a small minority assess or take into account post-exertional malaise (PEM), the defining characteristic of…
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Another Exercise Trial with Clinically Insignificant Findings
A recent study from JAMA Network Open, called “Resistance Exercise Therapy After COVID-19 Infection: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” demonstrates some of the flaws that so often mar papers in this field of research. The trial’s reported results do not warrant the optimistic conclusion that the intervention “may be a generalizable therapy for individuals with persisting…
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Australian Investigators Blame ME/CFS Patient Advocates for Poor Recruitment in “Active Video Gaming” Trial
In a new paper, a team of investigators from the University of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia, describes a “pilot feasibility” trial for an ME/CFS intervention focused on physical activity. The trial fell dramatically short on recruitment efforts—a failure that the investigators appear to explicitly blame on the patient community rather than any possible shortcomings…
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Letter to eClinicalMedicine about Exercise Recommendations in Flawed Meta-Analysis of Long COVID Interventions
A journal under the Lancet umbrella, eClinicalMedicine, recently published a study from China called “Effects of therapeutic interventions on long COVID: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” (I wrote about it here.) The authors themselves determined that most of the research they included was, to be charitable, on the crappy side. Nonetheless, they claimed “high-certainty…
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Lancet Paper Claims “Exercise” Should be “Prioritized” in Long COVID Rehabilitation
Added: On X, @mecfsskeptic has posted a very useful thread explaining how loosely the investigators applied the meaning of “Long COVID” in accepting trials for their meta-analysis. A Lancet journal, eClinicalMedicine, has just published a paper called “Effects of therapeutic interventions on long COVID: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” The study reviewed randomized controlled…
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A Bogus Request for Corrections to Recent Post on a Long Covid Exercse Study
Zachary Grin is a physical therapist in New York City who specializes in functional neurological disorder. Over the years, we had what I considered a good-natured, generally respectful exchange of views. As a gay man, I felt empathy for him—he posted about having difficulties with his parents after he came out. But I blocked him…
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Now a Scottish Long Covid Study Fails to Mention the Risk of Post-Exertional Malaise
*April is crowdfunding month at UC Berkeley. If you like my work, consider making a tax-deductible donation to Berkeley’s School of Public Health to support the Trial By Error project: https://crowdfund.berkeley.edu/project/31347 And here’s another major trial designed by investigators who think that an exercise program might be the optimal strategy for treating the complex grab-bag of…
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An open letter to Psychological Medicine, again!
Last week, Virology Blog posted an open letter to the editors of Psychological Medicine. The letter called on them to retract the misleading findings that participants in the PACE trial for ME/CFS had “recovered” from cognitive behavior therapy and graded exercise therapy. More than 100 scientists, clinicians, other experts and patient organizations signed the letter.…
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Why has the PACE Study’s “Sister Trial” Been “Disappeared” and Forgotten?
In 2010, the BMJ published the results of the Fatigue Intervention by Nurses Evaluation, or FINE. The investigators for this companion trial to PACE, also funded by the Medical Research Council, reported no benefits to ME/CFS patients from the interventions tested. In medical research, null findings often get ignored in favor or more exciting “positive”…
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Did the PACE Study Really Adopt a ‘Strict Criterion’ for Recovery?
First, some comments: When Virology Blog posted my very, very, very long investigation of the PACE trial two weeks ago, I hoped that the information would gradually leak out beyond the ME/CFS world. So I’ve been overwhelmed by the response, to say the least, and technologically unprepared for my viral moment. I didn’t even have…
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David Tuller responds to the PACE investigators
David Tuller’s three-installment investigation of the PACE trial for chronic fatigue syndrome, “Trial By Error,” has received enormous attention. Although the PACE investigators declined David’s efforts to interview them, they have now requested the right to reply. Today, virology blog posts their response to David’s story, and below, his response to their response. According to…