David Tuller: Trial By Error: My Letter to Professor Hotopf About Bristol's School Absence Study

[Kalliope]

My Letter to Professor Hotopf About Bristol's School Absence Study

Matthew Hotopf is a professor of general medicine psychiatry at King’s College London. He served as a peer-reviewer for a study by Bristol University investigators that was published in BMJ Open in 2011. The study involved whether school absences could be used to identify cases of diagnosed CFS/ME (as the study called the illness).

As I reported in my initial investigation of this issue, Professor Hotopf raised serious concerns in his peer-review about the study’s lack of ethical review–but the paper was published anyway. As part of my efforts to figure out what happened, I sent him the following e-mail on March 9

 

[Amw66]

Thank you @dave30th

 

[Lucibee]

Is @dave30th aware of Prof Hotopf's connections with Wessely, Sharpe and co?

Also this... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1295071/

 

[Lucibee]

Oh, and this one looks interesting too... Viruses, neurosis and fatigue

btw - didn't Matthew Hotopf get into this line of research because he was cured of CFS by MS at Warneford? Or did I dream that?

 

[chrisb]

Oh, and this one looks interesting too... Viruses, neurosis and fatigue

btw - didn't Matthew Hotopf get into this line of research because he was cured of CFS by MS at Warneford? Or did I dream that?

According to the Wesseley, Hotopf, Sharpe book

"Matthew Hotopf's earliest exposure to the field was personal. As a medical student at Bart's he suffered glandular fever and was enrolled into Peter White's study. (White P, Thomas J, Grover S, Kangro H,. Clare A The existence of a fatigue syndrome after glandular fever. Psychol Med 1995 25 907-916) This experience was an insight into the rigours of well conducted research."

 

[MeSci]

Hi, @dave30th. You don't appear to have stated in this latest article (which is great as far as I have read) that the REC is the Research Ethics Committee (at least I think it is, from using one of your links).

 

[Barry]

Also this... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1295071/

Oh my, as farces go ...

 

[Barry]

Mind you, he did at least raise valid objections, so probably best to wait for his reply before jumping to too many conclusions.

 

[dave30th]

Is @dave30th aware of Prof Hotopf's connections with Wessely, Sharpe and co?

yes. but I wasn't aware of the part about being in one of Peter White's study.

 

[Cheshire]

Trial By Error: My Latest Letter to Bristol

Last month I wrote to the director of legal services at the University of Bristol seeking information about documents from a study conducted by investigators from the institution. The study, published by BMJ Open in 2011, was called “Unidentified Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a major cause of school absence: surveillance outcomes from school-based clinics.”

More than a year ago, I had sought consent forms and other documents from Bristol through a freedom of information request. In response, Bristol noted that this was a “pilot clinical service” and “a clinical project” and that the university held none of the study documents. Yet the specialist service for pediatric CFS/ME in Bath, the medical unit that ran the “clinical project,” also informed me that it did not hold the documents and suggested I needed to contact the university.

http://www.virology.ws/2019/04/09/trial-by-error-my-latest-letter-to-bristol/

 

[dave30th]

Ah, good point! I should have cc'd Professor Hotopf as well on this latest letter.