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It is difficult to strike the right balance on issues like this. On the one hand one has to remain doubtful about aspects of the claims. On the other hand there appears to be an empirical finding which needs to be explained. It might point to an explanation of certain symptoms in certain...

@Valentijn I agree with all you say. My point, as opposed to Perrin's, was that this ME patient unexpectedly found an area of tenderness at a position predicted by Perrin. That makes me think it is at least worth considering whether this is a general symptom amongst all with ME, or within a...

I have followed this thread with the degree of scepticism which would be expected. (Sometimes I am sceptical about scepticism.) But having an enquiring disposition I thought that the least one should do is give "Perrin's Point" a prod. Totally unexpectedly it was slightly tender in a way which...

I have to take issue with that. In no way is that doing philosophy. What they are doing is merely lazy thinking and failing to analyse the linguistic concepts which they use.

That is rather what I was wondering, but I am not in a position to do anything about it.

I think this is a difficult question, and I am not sure that the term "true remission" can easily be understood. People clearly use the term differently. I think the most helpful approach is to try to understand how it was used in the literature surrounding the so called Royal Free outbreak (so...

If only we were privy to the departmental discussions and advice that Peter Lilley received prior to hiring John Locascio, and the advice which he subsequently gave.

Don't misunderstand me. I think this is a useful question, but may need some tweeking. Is the question merely asking about the current phase of one's condition? I do not think I could quite fit my condition into any of the alternatives at any of its stages, following an acute viral onset. I...

You will have to ask JE.

One troubling aspect of the Royal Free literature is the comment in the 1978 Compston paper http://pmj.bmj.com/content/postgradmedj/54/637/722.full.pdf that two years after the outbreak only four patients still presented marked physical disability and a small number manifested prolonged...

I agree with that, but we would still have to establish that there are no people around who underwent the six months rest therapy but continued to be ill anyway.

I suspect that most would agree with the inadequacy of the word malaise. The difficulty arises in trying to find a word with which to replace it. There is probably no single word to describe the experience of all people with all the different degrees of severity and at different stages of the...

I think I would wish to keep quiet about family links to SOE. It immediately conjures up images of secret, underground networks working by clandestine means to assert control. But of course that has no connection to the history of ME.

I can understand that if a service has nothing useful to offer it might be best to offer nothing. What I do not understand is the way that patients suffering from clear, but unknown and poorly understood, illness should simply be pushed out of the door. Any serious attempt at health provision...

To revert briefly to the theme of the alleged e-mail featuring on the front of the Sunday Times Magazine it would be interesting to know what meaning Crawley attributed to the phrase "Time is running for out (sic) you all". It is hard to see it as threatening. Puzzling, perhaps. EDIT The...

Is it not a rule breach to question a member's smoking practices?

The real test comes if claims are repeated once it is known that there are doubts as to their authenticity. In fairness, family circumstances may arise in which rather jumbled narratives may occur, and be accepted at face value, until questioned.

Given the stories which used to circulate about some members of a particular Derbyshire caving club, it is not clear that any statement as to their expectations could be made with confidence.

The one favourable thing that can be said about that response from the noble Lord is that whoever drafted it appears to recognise its total inadequacy.

The problem for Wessely and David is the evidence that they knew precisely what they were doing. We were acceptable collateral damage. "Sufferers have been told that "physical and mental exertion is to be avoided" (ME Action Campaign factsheet 1988). This may be correct in some cases, but there...