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I have long been of the view that most of what we see and know so far about ME is the patient's physiological and behavioural reaction to the underlying problem, the attempts to deal with a pathological demand on otherwise normal healthy systems now being forced to operate beyond their...

So it isn't deconditioning. Who knew? Identify and interrogate the assumptions is the first step in assessing any hypothesis. The deconditioning assumption is critical to the psychosomatic hypothesis of ME. Its proponents have never interrogated that assumption. How much time and resources...

Cognitive restructuring (i.e. modifying unhelpful thoughts) Who decides what is an 'unhelpful thought'? The sheer hubris required to be able make to claim about one's ability, given the overwhelming track record of its failure (and not just for ME), is unbelievable. About as low a bar as it gets.

Piss off, 'doctor'. You have dined out on our suffering for far too long. Go find an honest job. Some things should be cancelled, like this garbage.

https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2024/01/24/acu-seeds-dragons-den-2/

In the case of something like illness anxiety, where it’s pretty clear that there’s not an underlying serious disease, Spot the age-old problem with that logic. Of course the whole thing depends on how robust is the diagnosis of hypochondriasis. Which it isn't. Not even close.

Yes, yes, yes. All very interesting. But can she realign my Chakras with the Eternal Cosmic Oneness? It takes a properly qualified charlatan to do that.

It is, in principle at least, amenable to more objective measures. How practical that might be is a different story.

They love claiming they are both the victims and the heroes of the story, when they are neither.

Yes, important to keep in mind that is the minimum standard they have to meet – removing at least 95% of the target range of particles. They will typically do a lot better than that.

1. The dominant paradigm has, until recently, been the psychosomatic one. 2. In no small part due to 1, the post-infectious hypothesis has still not been adequately researched. 3. The emergence of Long-Covid seems to me a pretty good piece of evidence that this is post-infectious. Not...

I view masking up probabilistically. The right kind of mask, used properly, greatly decreases the risk of inhaling virus, and the quantity of virus inhaled if you are exposed. Particularly effective if your risk is casual, like mine. Meaning I am not in contact with the public much, so masking...

It is?

The game here is to flood the literature with apparently independent studies, all 'reproducing' the same basic result, using the same suite of flawed assumptions and methodology (mainly inadequate control of open label self-report measures, but also cherry picking evidence, selective...

Also worth noting that, as I understand US politics, health research has long been one of the most bipartisan issues in Congress. If there is one thing the two main parties are more likely to agree than not it is this one.

She was once told by doctors that she would never work again or have children. Want some hard evidence for that. If anything in the UK she was most likely told that she just needed some CBT and GET, and that recovery was possible, with the right attitude, of course.

This.

And we get accused of being in denial? Cowards gonna coward.

Although previous randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have reported benefits to structured GET in the management of ME/CFS,... If anything, the body of studies on GET from the psycho-behavioural club are characterised by their persistent lack of adequate control. They have also not reported...

Methods Randomized controlled trials... Stopped there. Anybody who can describe the body of psycho-behavioural studies for CFS as controlled really hasn't grasped the concept of control.