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Dr Shepherd's comments look to me to be nuanced and appropriate. My own experience with psychotropic drugs is that typically half a dozen are tried that make people worse before anything is found that helps. For people with lethal psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia or psychotic depression...

According to PubMed papers on cannabis alkaloids (several thousand in total) have been coming out since 1967 with a peak 1967-77 and then a linear rise since 2003. Medical cannabis has been legally available in Holland since 2003. I doubt that regulations in the US have much to do with policy...

I find that quite hard to believe. Is it really the case? I have been aware of research into cannabis derivatives for things like nausea over a period of about 40 years. And since all the medical students were regularly researching it at the weekend and not reporting any particular effects on...

Can we argue that though? Maybe the three biggest illegal drugs are based on opium, cocaine and marijuana. Modifications of, and synthetic analogues of, morphine and cocaine have been central to pharmacology for decades. There is a vast range of opioids. Cocaine analogues have been basic to...

Is it crazy? Fentanyl is well established as having an analgesic effect and for acute problems like dislocations seems not unreasonable. For whatever reasons there does not seem to be good evidence for analgesic efficacy of cannabis products - or at least not sufficient evidence for good...

Moved post A rather unhelpful piece from the Guardian today https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/18/long-covid-symptoms-ease-after-vaccination-survey-finds suggesting that vaccination helps LongCovid on the basis of a questionnaire survey. David Strain seems to be involved. I cannot...

I think I might go for Nicola Adams rather than Mike Tyson though.

When I was a lad underground platforms had speak your weight machines for a penny. I have always thought that they should now have jiggling machines so that elderly ladies and gents could stand on a similar metal plate for a minute and be subjected to repeated shock waves to strengthen the...

I agree that on the basis of the abstract this looks really hopeless. One statement stands out: Although graded exercise and CBT were more effective than inactive control therapies (usual care, usual specialist care, or an attention control) in improving fatigue, function, and other...

As far as I know the effect of exercise on bone is through physical force stimulating osteocytes. My colleague Andy Pitsillides worked on this in bird wings for some time. A pill is not going to generate any physical force on bone. I didn't;t see anything in the paper about effects on...

I managed to find it. I think there is a break in the logic in the article, which it ends up by explaining anyway. The exercise bit is clearly there to sell the idea because so many idiots are getting people to exercise whether or not it is good for them. The problem is this. 1. Exercise has...

It's a good thought. It would be good to be bale to access. I may be able to but not sure yet.

I cannot get beyond the snippet but: It seems that the drug they started with stimulates muscle bulk growth. I don't see that as being a particularly useful health benefit unless you want to do sport. It is carcinogenic. It has been around for twenty years and is banned in sport. My guess is...

I absolutely agree, @Michiel Tack. I am afraid I think this is entirely the wrong way to do things. It will generate exactly the sort of bias and noise that has worried me about DecodeME. It worries me that 'Edinburgh' is mentioned here. Medicine does not work by making lists of symptoms and...

Maybe a supertanker of luvvies only too ready to crow over the biffing of a fellow prima donna? Although this has more a feeling of the Marie Celeste than of the Titanic.

It is written...

I think that is the relation to sample size that makes the funnel plot work - if the power is low it is because the sample size should produce a lot of variance and as you say, it seems to be missing.

I can see that someone with iron deficiency might be assumed to be depressed or hypochondriac and diagnosed as chronic fatigue - or let's call it ME to give them a name - by a careless physician. Sure, there are careless physicians all over the place. But for a physician who actually thinks...

That sounds plausible from what PWME describe. If you hit a barrier in a 800 metre race it is just a freezing up. If you hit a barrier in a 5000 metre race it is more likely to be this ghastliness. You could probably sprint for 50 metres but the pain of another 1000 metres is the problem.

I can understand what you mean here but this is not having what in common talk we call 'energy' which is not energy in any sense like a battery or a fuel tank. As you say it seems that you could push yourself - so the energy is available, but using it makes you feel unwell. In a way I am...