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Actually the PACE trial's pre-registered primary outcomes were binary (whether fatigue was substantially reduced at trial end point, and also whether physical function substantially improved). You're right that although ORs are used as estimates of effect sizes in studies using binary outcomes...

When is lack of scientific integrity a reason for retracting a paper? A case study. Abstract: This editorial has just come out in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research. It is a discussion of issues that arose from this 2004 publication: This study is a triple-blinded randomised controlled...

Yes to this! Why do we need to prove that neglecting people in distress or treating people badly "causes health problems" in order to justify not doing these things? If a person doesn't develop some sort of health problem as a result of such poor treatment, does that make it okay? Surely, its...

Don't know about Ros Vallings' bit, but I'm guessing this bit on its own is going to be enough to wind us up!

That doesn't even begin to make sense. How can you have FND - which literally means you have neurological symptoms that are yet to be linked to any neurological disease process - when you have been diagnosed with a neurological disease whose pathophysiology is well understood! And don't tell me...

CBT a "high bar" :rofl::rofl::rofl:!!! Just thinking on it a bit more, it reminds me of the "recovery" stuff. Since these psychological interventions don't actually help people recover - in the plain meaning of the word - they slyly redefine recovery as "acceptance". That is, lowering your...

This is hilarious, @Sphyma! A self-compassion intervention for pain whose primary outcome measure is not pain, but self-compassion. Its like attempting to treat pain by pouring green paint over people, then observing that they do indeed turn green, proving the pain treatment successful! In the...

There's a lot of jargon, but some interesting observations that are worth reading about. This bit interesting: This recommendation that we "put some time aside for joy" is one many of us have received. And sometimes, its innocent. But there's a kind of dark side to it, that somehow you're not...

You expressed my own feelings on the matter so eloquently, @unicorn7. "popular sauce" :rofl::rofl::rofl:!!

I just looked over the full text, and I notice that there didn't seem to be any mechanism, either in the questions posed or in the thematic analysis approach, for identifying anything other than positive statements about the programme. There was a question about "overall experience", but that...

... "intersectionality" :yuck:

Nor me.... this punishment is definitely undeserved.

PS I think any benefit that PwMEs might get from corticosteroids probably has nothing to do with "correcting" morning cortisol, but stems from the direct antinflammatory properties of the drugs. Which is the main thing for which its prescribed in other illnesses.

I completely understand where you're coming from, @unicorn7. I certainly also feel that people underestimate the degree of disability and suffering PwMEs experience, and they don't take that into account when weighing up pro's and con's of medications. But I've been there, and corticosteroiods...

There is so much crank neuroscience in this area. I've recently been reviewing neuroimaging research on pain and bodily sensation, and it makes you realise just how primitive our understanding is of the pain experience. Its not at all how things are portrayed in this "pain neuroscience" junk...

I was put on a lowish dose of prednisone for a few months a couple of years back. I started on 10mg, stayed on it for a few weeks, and then slowly tapered down first dropping 1mg every few days then towards the end, 0.5mg every few days (if I recall correctly, the equivalent of a 10mg dose of...

Yeah, the idea that not being anxious about your pain makes it manageable... it just doesn't fit with the outcomes of cingulotomy surgery to treat pain. The surgery makes people so unanxious about everything they're virtually a couch potato, but its effect on pain is only very modest (only a...

https://slate.com/technology/2021/02/chronic-pain-neuroscience-education-running-joy.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-intl-en Content warning: When the article says neuroscience, they really mean "neuroscience" ;). Some excerpts: This is an "interesting" bit: This bit... hmmm:

Its funny when you compare how strict some of these researchers are in their approach to naming our illness against the constantly changing names they're using in the wider field of unexplained illness. There, it seems these folks can't wait to make up yet another name that helps to obscure...

I'm actually really surprised this paper got published, because it seems to have no proper overarching rationale. Why were these particular diseases singled out and not others? I'm not saying people with these diseases don't have gut problems. But the group choice just seems so random. Wouldn't...