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This refers to a study that is only available in Chinese: Li J, Xie J, Pan Z, Guo X, Li Y, Fu R. [Chronic fatigue syndrome treated with transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation: a randomized controlled trial]. Zhongguo Zhen Jiu. 2017;37(12):1276–9. doi: 10.13703/j.0255-2930.2017.12.006...

The paper writes: "The paradox of how JH is a risk factor for developing ME/CFS but does not appear to change the mode of onset or manifestations of the illness requires explanation." I haven't seen any evidence that JH is a risk factor for developing ME/CFS...

27 patients in each group is small so that the study was only powered to detect large effects. There was also a loss of power because they dichotomized the Beighton scale. They could have also used regression and report correlations between the Beighton scale and other measures of disability.

The article writes: "although “of some sort” correctly suggests a lack of exact clarity as to the elements at the root of physical symptoms, its vagueness intentionally invites patients to explore how emotional concerns might contribute to their origin" It really comes close to a parody.

This paper explains: C4a is generated from the cleavage of the native complement protein C4 via the classical and lectin pathways. In the classical pathway, C4 is cleaved by C1s activated by C1q, whereas in the lectin pathway, C4 is cleaved by mannan-binding lectin serine protease 2 (MASP2)...

This 2015 study by the German team of Scheibenbogen reported: "Deficiency of MBL was found in 15% of the CFS patients in contrast to 6% in a historical control group.

There was a recent Austrian study (Lutz et al. 2021) that had a similar design (report the results of blood tests in a large group of ME/CFS patients but without a control group). It reported that: "Reduced MBL (mannose-binding lectin) levels were found in 32% of ME/CFS patients, and MBL...

Don't understand the figures for medication use in table 1. How come the numbers (n) are so low but the percentages between brackets are so high?

Looks like a useful paper with data from 250 women that meet Fukuda and Canadian criteria. The full dataset has been made available in the supplementary material. Patients must have been really ill with a mean score for SF-36 physical functioning of 26.9.

The response rate was only 13% so the data may not be representative. They used the 11-item Chalder Fatigue Scale but found no difference between groups: "fatigue (assessed by CFQ) showed no substantial differences between positives (Mean=13.3, SD=5.2) and negatives (Mean=12.5, SD=5.1)." The...

These are the six interventions they looked at: They mostly looked at evidence from RCT's to see if outcomes favored the control instead of the intervention group. @Caroline Struthers

Some discussion on the importance of blinding in regard to psychedelics in psychiatry:

I don't have much trust in the judgement of Gotzsche

Does anyone know of long covid groups that focus on advocacy at the European level?

I suppose that consultant was David Streeten? They published a paper in 1998 that claimed reduced blood volume in CFS patients but the study had no controls. In 2000 they published a study with controls but there was no statistically significant difference with CFS patients (the sample size was...

Yes, it seems that the authors defined the group with persistent symptoms as anyone reporting any symptom, regardless of severity. they write: The PS group was defined by patients who reported the persistence of at least one symptom (when they filled in the online questionnaire), and the no-PS...

From what I remember there haven't been any studies that showed a reduced total blood volume in ME/CFS, so I find it rather unfortunate that this state-of-the-art review reports this. See: https://www.s4me.info/threads/blood-volume-and-red-blood-cell-volume-in-me-cfs.17305/#post-176681

Excellent, thanks!