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Esther Crawley - (what drives her) plus quotes

Discussion in 'UK clinics and doctors' started by Sly Saint, Nov 20, 2017.

  1. MSEsperanza

    MSEsperanza Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    When I looked for review registrations with Crawley as main or co-applicant a while ago, I also noticed their insconsistent use of inclusion / diagnostic criteria:


    Sytemetic Reviews with Esther Crawley as a co-applicant, registered at PROSPERO/
    Inclusion critera for study participants: (Also from my drafts folder and not checked for accuracy.)


    2014:

    1) "Only include studies with children diagnosed since 1994 as this is when CFS/ME was defined scientifically";
    neverless included
    Oxford Criteria (1991)

    2) "We will only include studies with people diagnosed since 1994 as this is when the CDC defined CFS/ME defined scientifically."

    But: Participants/population:
    People with CFS/ME, or ME (myalgic encephalitis or myalgic encephalopathy) defined using CDC criteria (Fukuda 1994, 2004) or NICE (2007) or Oxford criteria (1991).

    3) Context: Only include studies with children diagnosed from date of first agreed definition of CFS/ME (Fukuda, 1994).
    And:
    Inclusion: Children and young people (below 18 years of age) with CFS/ME (we will record the diagnostic criteria used and consider this in the risk of bias assessment).


    2015:

    This review will be limited to studies with young people (age <18 years) diagnosed since 1991 as this is when CFS/ME was scientifically defined.

    A 2nd review from 2015 doesn‘t provide information under 'context', inclusion criteria are Oxford, Fukuda & NICE

    2016:
    nclusion criteria: Fukuda, Oxford, CDC, and NICE definitions
    context: date of first agreed definition of CFS/ME (Oxford, 1991)

    Quoted from these studies:

    Edited to fix some muddle. Apologies -- needed a couple of tries.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2020
  2. Sly Saint

    Sly Saint Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Mithriel and MEMarge like this.
  3. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    She is obliged to do it that way by academic rules. I had to do the same.
     
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  4. Sly Saint

    Sly Saint Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Similar Doctors
    Maria Loades also rated as 'Elite'
    Amberley Brigden 'Distinguished'
    https://www.medifind.com/conditions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome/1135/doctors/esther-m-crawley/209858196
     
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  5. rvallee

    rvallee Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Seems to be based entirely on citations for her research and how her work is overhyped, using a machine learning algorithm that obviously cannot distinguish good research from bad research.

    So essentially quantity and marketing matter, quality does not.
     
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  6. Sly Saint

    Sly Saint Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    This seems to be a newish revamp of Bristols website:

    Professor Esther Crawley:

    Biography:


    https://www.bristol.ac.uk/people/person/Esther-Crawley-a95300a2-c840-4475-961b-db30939cfc55/

     
  7. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    So it's official. She doesn't study ME/CFS, she studies chronic fatigue.

    I wonder how she would view someone saying they studied chest pain and included people with everything from broken ribs to heart attacks in the same study.

    As for claiming to improve research methodology, words fail me.
     
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  8. Barry

    Barry Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    There are certain personality types who exhibit a key behaviour: accuse others of the characteristics they themselves strongly exhibit, and then seek to gain the high ground by claiming to decry such characteristics, and to claim how they want to set things right again. You only have to look to the recent US elections for very many examples. Sadly it is all too common.

    A very good example by the way.
     
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  9. Mithriel

    Mithriel Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I have never cared if they want to study chronic fatigue. It could even be useful. But why did they have to pull in ME and destroy our lives when they are not interested in any of the symptoms we actually get?

    I would expect an eye doctor to be interested in knowing all about eyes not just blinking.
     
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  10. Simbindi

    Simbindi Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I have to conclude it's because it was ME they were first interested in, beginning with their reframing it as 'chronic fatigue syndrome' and moving it into the mental health domain. Then they pulled every other type of chronic fatigue into that ever increasing BPS domain, stealthily reframing 'chronic fatigue syndrome' as 'chronic fatigue'. Now they are seeing the founding, central condition for their work being pulled out from their territory and just can't allow it.

    It's the only reason I can think of why they haven't just accepted 'ME/CFS with PEM' as a distinct condition requiring its own NICE guidelines (because of the potential for harm from inappropriate treatments such as GET) and instead change their focus of attention to all the other fatigue conditions. There is so many of these, why not just let ME go? [Edit: speaking from the BPS MUS perspective, not my own]
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2021
  11. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    I am not sure what other fatigue conditions there are. Fatigue has to be caused by something. Depression, sleep problems, inadequate diet, burnout, anaemia, other pathologies etc. There isn't any evidence I'm aware of that lumping these together as 'fatigue conditions' makes any sense either. They should all be properly investigated and treatment given appropriate to the condition.
     
  12. Simbindi

    Simbindi Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    I agree, I am trying to see things from the BPS viewpoint - there is lots of fish in the sea from their perspective. I'm not saying it is right to lump them together, just that there must be some reason why they want to hold onto ME and keep it in their 'MUS' territory.
     
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  13. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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  14. DigitalDrifter

    DigitalDrifter Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  15. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    Sorry to cause confusion. I certainly didn't intend to conflate depression with fatigue. My intention was to list some examples of conditions which may include fatigue in their symptoms.
     
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  16. Adam pwme

    Adam pwme Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  17. JemPD

    JemPD Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Shudder
     
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  18. Sly Saint

    Sly Saint Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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  19. Sly Saint

    Sly Saint Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    https://www.bristol.ac.uk/academic-child-health/news/2021/prudence-trust-grant.html
     
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  20. TiredSam

    TiredSam Committee Member

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    The Prudence Trust doesn't seem very prudent to me. But then it was only set up in 2020 and has Simon Wessely on their advisory panel, so we're stuffed. I suspect some kind of astroturfing / territory grab going on here.
     
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