Tag: Long Covid
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Study Finds Signs of “Functional Limb Weakness” in Patients Not Reporting Actual Limb Weakness
A recently published study about functional neurological disorder (FND) has reported some perplexing data. Of almost 300 patients diagnosed with Long Covid, 100 were identified as demonstrating one or more “positive signs” for “functional limb weakness,” a form of FND. Yet only 14 of those 100 patients reported experiencing limb weakness in the first place;…
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Canadian GET/CBT Campaigners Publish Propaganda Cosplaying as Research on Twitter Trends
McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, seems to be Canada’s Ground Zero for psychosomatic theorizing. In March, 2021, a psychiatrist-in-training, Jeremy Devine, published an opinion in The Wall Street Journal titled “The Dubious Origins of Long Covid.” (I wrote about it here.) Devine cited the PACE trial favorably, as if its findings were meaningful. The animating…
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Andrew Ewing & David Joffe on Just-Published “Global Expert Consensus” on Long Covid
Last week, the journal Annals of Clinical Microbiology and Antimicrobials published the results of a major effort to collate international expertise on Long Covid. The article–“Long COVID clinical evaluation, research and impact on society: a global expert consensus”—was produced under the auspices of the Long COVID Advisory Group of the World Health Network, a global…
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Suzanne O’Sullivan’s “Psychosomatic” Mis-Diagnoses
Neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan has been conducting a media blitz for her new book, “The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker.” The Guardian ran a lengthy excerpt in early March. O’Sullivan appeared on the popular podcast Freakonomics. Multiple publications have published profiles of her, with credulous assessments of her…
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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…
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Our Presentation at the University of New South Wales
On Tuesday, I gave a presentation at the Kirby Institute, a renowned research center at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, along with my friend and colleague Dr David Joffe, a respiratory medicine specialist. David spoke about the pathophysiology of Long Covid as well as the enormous economic burden of the disease. I spoke about…
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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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Interview with Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles Griffis, Founders/Editors of The Sick Times
In November, 2023, journalists Betsy Ladyzhets and Miles Griffis launched The Sick Times, a publication devoted to, per its tagline, “chronicling the Long Covid crisis.” Both of them had been covering the pandemic, and Griffis had written of his own Long Covid experience. The Sick Times has gained both readers and funders over the last…
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Video of October Talk in Ireland on How “Biopsychosocial” Research on ME, Long Covid, and Related Illnesses Harms Patients
In October, I spent 10 days traveling around Ireland and giving a talk called “Bad Science, Bad Medicine: How Flawed Biopsychosocial Studies on ME, Long Covid, etc Harm Patients.” (I wrote about the trip here.) I came as a guest of the Irish ME/CFS Association, which had previously arranged similar tours with two physicians who…
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Some Things I’ve Read Recently–Long Covid and Fertility Issues, Psychotherapy Ethics, How to Fake Your Results
It’s been a slow period. Here are a few things I’ve read recently… “The pandemic’s untold fertility story” While Long Covid disproportionately affects women, its impact on their reproductive lives has not received the attention the issue deserves. Recently, Australia’s ABC News addressed the issue with a moving piece called “The pandemic’s untold fertility story,”…
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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…
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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…