BMJ Article: Covid-19 and chronic fatigue July 2020 Williams, Muirhead, Pariante

doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m2922 (Published 30 July 2020)

https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m2922
(no sci-hub link as yet)

article is in response to
Helen Salisbury: When will we be well again?

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2490

eta:
Main article: Helen Salisbury: When will we be well again?: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2490/rr-0

Rapid Response from Williams, Muirhead and Pariante: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2490/rr-0

All rapid responses: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2490/rapid-responses

 

Is Pariante still on the CMRC? If so, why?

 

I cannot access the article on sci-hub, but I can access sci-hub itself here:

https://sci-hub.tw/

 

Looks like it's from a RR to the original article: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2490/rapid-responses

 

Free access:

Main article: Helen Salisbury: When will we be well again?: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2490/rr-0

Rapid Response from Williams, Muirhead and Pariente: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2490/rr-0

Rapid response from Michael Peel, GP: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2490/rr

All rapid responses: https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2490/rapid-responses

@Trish @Sly Saint Can these links be added to the original post?

Two observations:

1. I’m surprised Nina Muirhead is collaborating with Carmine Pariante. I’m not particularly up to date but do they not hold opposing views on ME/CFS?

2. The response from Dr Peel is not very helpful, and probably fairly typical of the views of GPS of his generation. My guess is that many of his patients with post-viral fatigue may have gradually returned to something like normal by slowing down and not trying to do too much too quickly. And I suspect that many of his patients who didn’t get better stopped coming to see him because they realised that he wasn’t going to be any help.

 

Sci hub link, https://sci-hub.tw/10.1136/bmj.m2922

 

Interesting that Dr Michael Peel is a GP at the Hurley Group, which is the same Group where Gerada is based.

"The picture reminds me of patients I saw in the mid 1980s with tiredness and muscle pain on the slightest exertion, but more severe. The term the patients used was ME, which became Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which described their situation more accurately. Most of my patients learned to slow down, something that they found difficult, and increase their exercise gradually. They almost all returned to living a normal life, though it took up to a year to do so. They did much better than the patients I am seeing with the same label now."

"What can we say today to our patients? That we do not know what will happen, but there is always hope. Take a medium term view. Trying to do too much too quickly is counterproductive. Ask "can I do more than I did two weeks ago?" because it will be slow. Michael Mayne wrote "A Year Lost and Found" in 1987, towards the end of his recovery and it gives a good perspective. We can't make promises, and none of us have a magic wand, but we can be there and perhaps that's the most important tool in primary care."

 

I suspect that Nina M is working with Frances Williams who works with twins research at King's, and that Pariante got added due to his work on fatigue post hepatitis.

 

Frustrating to see this was published:
https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m2923

 

Surprisingly ok letter considering the BPS positions he has previously taken. Apart from the false claim that 1% of the population has ME/CFS, it seems reasonable.