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For those of us with Tory MPs might the political context of the PACE trial be a helpful angle? The PACE trial uniquely was funded in part by the DWP (Department of Work & Pensions) but also in part by the Department of Health, both government departments, as well as a more usual research...

Rereading the above, I wondered if I was in fact saying there were three main points, the third being that ME is a 'real' biomedical disorder. However I suspect by explicitly raising the psychiatric versus biomedical debate we play into the hands of the BPS crew who can then muddy the water by...

I agree there are many issues that need addressing, but given our current state of knowledge I would argue that the two most important are the prevention of harm by forcing NICE to drop GET and the PACE corruption of CBT and the need for increased funding for biomedical research. The need for...

Excellent news. Another letter to my MP to add to the list.

The study reports "In the adult general population, MUS were persistent in over one third of the subjects with MUS at baseline. Persistency was significantly predicted by parental psychopathology, number of comorbid chronic medical disorders, and physical functioning." (Sorry, I too could not...

@Trish point taken. I had wondered also whether this was getting dangerously near suggesting we share information that could be mistakenly taken as medical advice. I had been grappling personally with how I could compensate for my memory problems by externally storing and organising...

When I took vitamin D regularly it was as part of a range of supplements, so though at the time I believed they were helpful, I could not say which individually were responsible for any benefit. When I took a lot of supplements some years ago it was under a nutritionalist and though they seemed...

The conversion theory of physical symptoms is obviously a strongly held belief by many clinicians, psychologists and psychiatrists, but has anyone ever demonstrated scientifically that it ever occurs? Also its advocates don't seem to come up with a predictive theory as to why it would result in...

Predominantly female professions are paid less than predominantly male professions of equal work. This is sexist because women are being paid less than men. That men working in the predominantly female professions are as badly paid as women does not mean that gender is not the basis of the pay...

How about the failure of peer review in medical/science journals as this could take in The problems of subjective measures in open labelled trials Failure to report objective measures used Outcome switching Problems with research definitions of conditions (Oxford criteria, etc) Failure of...

Is this this something we should be investigating here at present or do we let @dave30th run with it and see what happens? I had meant to start looking at the other projects that rely on the same supposed 'ethical approval waiver' as the School Absence study, but am in danger of pushing myself...

We have come to expect this research misconduct from the BPS cult members, and I had assumed a contributory factor is the fundamental disrespect they seem to have for people with ME both in relation to their theories and in practice, however is it more wide spread than this? Increasingly we are...

The final article in @dave30th 's list of the eleven studies currently suspected of inappropriately avoiding the ethical approval process was submitted for publication in March of this year and actually published less than four weeks ago. I am not reliable with dates or time, but this is surely...

I wonder if behind what he is saying is the nice ameniable patients that let us call their condition whatever we want and do what we tell them have a genuine condition, but those patient insisting they have a biomedical condition and reject our advice are 'wrong uns' that are making things up...

Thank you @Michiel Tack for all the work you are doing in collating this important information.

Has anyone attempted to systematically look at the condition or conditions triggered by mould? It seems to be there are a range of possibilities in how it may relate to ME: mould exacerbates pre existing ME, so it does not cause ME but does make the symptoms worse (avoiding mould would lessen...

If I remember my undergraduate anatomy correctly the vagus nerve connects to the external ear canal and to the stomach, so perhaps sticking our fingers in our ears and wiggling them about or even eating a large meal could be seen as stimulating the vagus. Even if singing in the shower does aid...

You are probably correct @Trish, though it is hard to believe that someone is so unaware. The fact that he deleted the tweet at least indicates he is aware that it makes him look bad even if he has no understanding why.

At least Sharpe retracted the tweet, and, albeit with some ill grace, attempted an apology. Perhaps even he is becoming aware of some of the internal inconsistencies in what he says, and perhaps even a little embarrassed when confronted by the realities of life for activists like Alem Matthees...

@Brian Hughes, I am reading 'Psychology in Crisis' with great interest. It is the first book I hope to finish for a number of years. Brain fog means difficulty in integrating information over longer sections of text, so each chapter has to be reread several times. Currently about a month in and...