This post is sort of long and complicated, but I think the details are important given Andrew Lloyd’s outsized role in the ME/CFS domain in Australia. I urge patients to take care not to over-exert themselves in reading it!
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A few weeks ago, I interviewed Andrew Lloyd, an infectious disease specialist at the University of New South Wales. When I asked about his past referencing of
the PACE trial as evidence for treating ME/CFS with CBT and GET, he told me he “might have” cited it in papers but couldn’t actually remember whether he had or not. He further declared himself “unfussed” about the controversy over the trial because other evidence (e.g. the Cochrane reviews) also found that these therapies were effective. (More on that problematic argument in another post.)
In
my short blog about our conversation, I indicated that I found it hard to believe Professor Lloyd couldn’t remember whether or not he’d cited PACE. Here’s one reason: In 2015, he co-wrote
a BMJ editorial that discussed three separate PACE papers. Here’s another: Three years before that, he co-authored
a commentary in the Journal of Internal Medicine that not only mentioned the PACE findings favorably but unfairly criticized smart patients and researchers who had questioned the reported results.
