News from Scandinavia

Sigmund Olafsen is a 'civil engineer / senior researcher in acoustics. He is also a relative'. He also have written some good articles about PACE and highlightning it's faults, mainly focusing on that the data never supported the researchers claims, in a very factual style.

April 24 he had another good chronicle in 'Dagens medisin' (=todays medicine):
"ME treatment needs to enter a new track" [norwegian - google english]

It's not really anything new in this piece, as such. But his writing style and authority as a researcher himself, in another field, still making an impact. As can be seen by the responses in the comments field... Nina Andresen, the psychologist and ex-patient that have written several negative pieces about ME-patients is there - as is several others who have a hard time swallowing there is no data to support their claims.

 

Nina Andresen in one of her comments states:

If facts are important for Olafsen, then I can state that the CDC (the health authorities in the US) still recommends both CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) and GET (graded exercise therapy), as this is recommended in the treatment guide for health personnel, the link on their website

Is this correct? I think she is playing the conflating game as per BPS usual and the CDC is referring to activity pacing which she is suggesting is what they are doing (only differently as they are concerned with increasing activity but this is not said).

Here's the relevant page: https://www.cdc.gov/me-cfs/treatment/index.html

 

Seems she's referring to the fact that there's a link on the CDC webdsite to these Canadian guidelines that mention CBT and GET: http://www.topalbertadoctors.org/cpgs/0242896

 

Closest reference to CBT on that page

and closest reference to GET

So I think that confirms that she is being deliberately inaccurate in what she says.

 

Well that shows me the TOP site but where did you find it at the CDC? Is it obviously accessible or did she go digging? It may be that the CDC need to be made aware.

ETA: She is being disingenuous if it is not actually the CDC

 

I found it by searching for what she quoted.

It's the 'Clinical Care of Patients with ME/CFS' link at the bottom of this page:

https://www.cdc.gov/me-cfs/healthca...-mecfs/treating-most-disruptive-symptoms.html

 

That sums up most of her statements really, as with Landmark we've learrned to always check sources and claimes made.

Olafsen and others are doing a very good job in the commentaries

 

Bizarre article in Denmark about ME/CFS and functional neurological disorders (FND)

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=da&tl=en&u=https://dagensmedicin.dk/lad-os-tale-om-funktionelle-neurologiske-lidelser/

Does anyone even know what to make of this? I'm honestly so confused

I thouht FND had nothing to do with 'Funktionelle lidelser' / 'functional disorders' / 'bodily distress syndrome'?

Also the debate in Denmark was about having ME/CFS taken out of the entire functional disorders (funktionelle lidelsser), it had absolutely nothing to do with FND. Why is the author brining it up?

What does ME/CFS have to do with FND? How do they even overlap / have anything to do with each others?

 

It looks like you need to log in, so google translate isn't working for me.

 

Doesn't work for me either now, I was a naughty boy and copy pasted in my original comment.

 

If you can't explain it, that means you can't explain it. It doesn't mean that you have gained evidence that these symptoms have a particular cause.

 

It's a logical fallacy that can be used to argue that astrology is real.

Stars and planets exist

Stars and planets have an influence on us (gravitational and electromagnetic)

Their influence coincides with events on Earth

Those events can be argued to be influenced by stars and planets

Ergo astrology is real

The real problem is that institutions are enabling this nonsense. It's normal for fringe ideas to be proposed. What's not normal is that they are propped up despite making no sense whatsoever.

 

Yes, that's how I read it:

Hopefully this is the first of a series of 12 articles, I'm looking forward to reading what they say about Taurus.

 

Professor Montoya has been visiting Store Sköndal outside Stockholm, Sweden. Stora Sköndal has been running an outpatient clinic for ME patients for several years. They have a biomedical approach, does assessment, treatment (which I believe is mainly about managing symptoms) as well as research.

 

For almost 30 years, Norway had two ME patient organisations. One of them, MENIN, decided in 2017 to close down and to donate their profit to research into ME.

This month they gave a huge donation on 2,1 million NOK (241682 USD, 216756 EUR, 187147 GBP) to the researchers Olav Mella, Øystein Fluge and their team at Haukeland university Hospital

 

I wouldn't mind if a certain UK charity did the same.

 

Henrik Berggren from Broder Daniel talks about M.E.



ETA: This clip is part of a MillionsMissing event (the details haven't been translated into English yet):

 

Forskning.no a Norwegian news site about research had an article the other day about the HRA report supposedly clearing the PACE trial from all criticism (discussed in the general PACE thread here) . Today the university OsloMet has an article about MUS (medically unexplained symptoms) turning into Bodily Distress Syndrome, and that Chronic Fatigue Syndrome belongs under this umbrella term.

At least they're honest about what they think when they say the main criteria for Bodily Distress Disorder is that the doctor think the patient is too focused on their symptoms.

The google translation is as usual not very good, but feel free to ask if you want a translation done by a human of some words/sections. "Root box" for instance is "roteskuff" - a drawer for bits and pieces you don't know where else to put. I've translated it as a "clutter drawer". The scientist seems to think putting patients in such a drawer is a huge improvement from putting them in a garbage bin...

MUPS is not in itself a diagnosis, but a collective term. In the literature, MUPS has been referred to as a garbage bin in the diagnostic system. Rasmussen also suggests that this category can be understood as a clutter drawer.

- In the garbage bin you put something you want to get rid of. Though too many patients unfortunately often feel treated as garbage, I mean the clutter drawer is more precise. In a clutter drawer you put something you do not want to throw, at least not at first, but which you have no other places to put.

The medical researchers are working actively to get order in the clutter drawer, but so far have not succeeded, says Rasmussen.

...
The new version of the hospital's diagnostic manual contains a new diagnosis that is intended to embrace several of the patients in the drawer. The diagnosis bears the name Bodily Distress Disorder. It is intended to replace a number of diagnoses for disorders that cause bodily symptoms that can vary from mild to significant, without the presence of a bodily disease, so-called somatoform disorders.

- It is too early to say anything about how the new diagnosis will work. One of the main criteria is that the doctor thinks the patient is too concerned about their symptoms. It is possible to envision that such a diagnosis will not be particularly popular among patients, Erik Børve Rasmussen concludes.

Forskning.no: Lider du av MUPS?
google translation: Do you suffer from MUS?

 

This asshole is aware they are talking about real human lives? Right? I believe asshole is the proper technical term here. Medicine needs such massive reform. There is no accountability in the system, no due process, not even the mere demand of common sense and avoiding harm. Patients are disposed of as mere complaints, dehumanized and turned into mere product.

Rasmussen calls us trash. Well, right back at ya, you are trash, unfit for the responsibilities of this profession.

It is not. It is very much late in this regard. It's stupid and sadistic and the people promoting this nonsense are reckless and irresponsible.