Physicians with long Covid confront a medical establishment eager to classify their illness as psychological (2022) Tuller

Cheshire

Cheshire

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
New article by @dave30th
Doctors suffering from long Covid strike back at their peers – the doctors calling their illness psychosomatic. Something very similar happened with patients afflicted with ME/CFS

Glasgow palliative care physician Shaun Peter Qureshi came down with Covid-19 early in the pandemic. Like many patients, he experienced profound fatigue, episodes of dizziness, and problems with memory and concentration for many months after his acute illness. Standard medical tests were all negative.

His doctor refused to order more tests, citing concerns about “over-investigating” his condition, he said. “She doesn’t think there was anything really wrong,” said Qureshi, who is 35 and remains severely disabled. Other doctors suggested he just needed exercise to get back into shape after having been sick.
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https://www.codastory.com/waronscience/long-covid/
 
"Unfortunately, most clinicians are not House. When routine examinations fail to yield results, physicians often conclude that patients are “somatizing”— expressing psychological distress in the form of physical sensations. Patients who reject this psychosomatic view can be dogged about seeking further medical consultations and tests despite having been advised repeatedly that nothing amiss has been found. "

The problem with this reference, if I recall correctly, is that one of the first episodes of House has him being dismissive of a patient with CFS. Other than that, great writing as normal from David.
 
Despite this shift, some of the physicians who have promoted psychological and behavioral treatments for ME/CFS are among those pushing the same approach for long Covid. This group’s continued adherence to psychological explanations for post-viral medical complaints does not surprise Johns Hopkins pediatrician Peter Rowe, an ME/CFS and POTS expert who has treated long Covid patients.

“These guys are so married to this broken hypothesis that no amount of factual information or scientific data will make them change their view,” said Rowe. “That’s theology, that’s not science.”
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:):)
 
dave30th said:
Ha! I had no idea!!! What did he think it was? Did he come around in the end?
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Not quite. There's a summary here:
https://house.fandom.com/wiki/Tired_Man

ETA: To be fair, when clicking on the link to "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" it says:

On the series, Molnar thinks he might have CFS, but House effectively treats the condition with candy mints. Thus proving that Molnar never suffered from CFS to begin with, seeing as this is not a disease that can be cured by placebo.

https://house.fandom.com/wiki/Chronic_fatigue_syndrome
 
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Andy said:
The problem with this reference, if I recall correctly, is that one of the first episodes of House has him being dismissive of a patient with CFS. Other than that, great writing as normal from David.
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I remember it. First episode, gave the patient tic tacs from a vending machine while being extra condescending, even by House's standards of misanthropy.
 
Yes i remember that House episode.... I only came to House in season 2 (there was no streaming/catch-up back then). And so it was only later when i was a fan, that i came across the CFS episode. I was gutted & watched no further series in protest.

I'm amazed but grateful that Greys hasnt done something on it.

Great article as always though @dave30th
 
Following the Guardian piece on gaslighting Long Covid sufferers, Gaffney penned an insolent little Twitter missive reminiscent of the typical BPS standard bearers. I’m curious as to whether he will respond to this composition.

Either way, well done @dave30th! Let’s hope that physicians harangued by these conditions will feel more comfortable publicizing their struggles. That could prove crucial in gaining recognition.
 
Reginald VelJohnson said:
I’m curious as to whether he will respond to this composition.
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Dr Gaffney wrote me back on twitter a couple of weeks ago, a couple of weeks after I'd messaged and e-mailed him. He asked if I was still working on it if he wanted to comment. I said yes. But I didn't hear back after that. Do you have the link to his tweets about the guardian article?
 
Excellent article. :thumbup:

One tiny suggestion:

Last fall, Britain’s...

If you are writing for a wider global audience then references to seasons are misleading. Seasons are inverted between the northern and southern hemispheres, and the latitude also factors in (speaking as somebody who lives near the equator, where the concepts of fall and spring, indeed the whole four seasons thing, don't really apply).

Just cite the date, in this case the month and year is sufficient.
 
We should preemptively pen the BPS missives before they materialize, as I imagine we could almost mirror them verbatim.

These pseudo-philosophical tirades about the folly of separating brain and mind have nothing to do with the BPS approach to post-infectious disease. And to call this reductive when the alternative is false illness beliefs/deconditioning is maddening. It’s the most myopic, simplistic, and banal explanation for our disability fathomable.

I could speculate about Gaffney’s motivations for entering this domain of debate, but irrespective of that, these hackneyed straw men arguments are so predictable and intellectually lazy. I don’t have much of a Twitter presence, but I hope someone with a more robust platform will dissect his response, because it deserves a logical lashing. E7EEB524-634F-4623-BE33-E30F9E64BE34.pngE7EEB524-634F-4623-BE33-E30F9E64BE34.png
 
Wouldn't pyschosocial factors play a role in pretty much all illnesses and pretty much all of interactive living?

How is this vague statement in any way concretely useful?

Of course for those who make such lame statements it's because they wish it to mean 'take your CBT/GET medicine and stop whining about the bio part.'

Again, using the phrase 'psychosocial factors' is a code for them but in reality (where the rest of live) it is a vague hand-wavy thing to say and can rightfully be applied quite broadly.

ETA: word for clarity
 
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Snowdrop said:
Wouldn't pyschosocial factors play a role in pretty much all illnesses and pretty much all of interactive living?

How is this vague statement in any concretely useful?

Of course for those who make such lame statements it's because they wish it to mean 'take your CBT/GET medicine and stop whining about the bio part.'

Again, using the phrase 'psychosocial factors' is a code for them but in reality (where the rest of live) it is a vague hand-wavy thing to say and can rightfully be applied quite broadly.
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This. Simply this.
The elephant in the room
 
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