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The MRC say that they do not work like that. No money is earmarked for any particular illness – it is one reason why they do not give any breakdown into different conditions of how they spend their money. According to them, applications get reviewed and scored, normally by 3 people, and then...

Also it was good to see copies of the green booklet from the Journal of Health Psychology scattered about. I have dropped a line to the editor, David Marks, to draw his attention to it, and to tell him to polish his halo for helping us make an impact.

You might want to write to them, and, out of courtesy perhaps (what's the appropriate smiley to pick?), send a copy to your own MP - the one that didn't attend.

Actually if you look at the files released from Kew, you will see that they were using the "we're ready to accept any worthwhile biomedical study" excuse back in the 90s in response to patients' questions. You will also see that the Gibson Inquiry of 2006 skewers that. I was thinking of writing...

Sorry Alex, you over-estimate my statistical skills. At A-level there are, as you probably know, three areas (just as in Science there is Physics, Chemistry and Biology). My preferences are Mechanics and Pure, with Statistics/Decision maths limping along behind. But I do have a concern about...

One of his lines is about the PACE trial being way back in 2011, but of course it isn't that simple. They strung out various publications over the years. The recovery study appeared in 2013: it wasn't until 2015 that we found out the results of the step test: and of course, in resisting the...

I don't know what happened, but actually mine is the sf-36 physical functioning questionnaire, but when I tried it out for real, the name put people off, so I didn't mention what it was called.

These assumptions were based on results of questionnaires given out at ME centres. They found that people who were members of self-help group showed less improvement than those who were not. The psychs who support CBT etc. assumed, with their usual persecution complex, that this was due to...

I think we forget that all patients had 4 or 5 sessions with a specialist, and we underestimate that effect. My experience is that most people just see the specialist for 20 minutes or so, get told they have CFS, and are passed on to the therapists. Even so, the relief of having a proper...

As Jonathan points out, the stuff I covered isn't original. If you go back to the massive thread on the PACE trial on PR, and look at the summary of opinions in the first evaluatingpace pages, so much was discussed by so many gifted folk (including @Esther12 ). I've just been trying to pick out...

Thanks Jonathan. Is that iron awe? If you look more closely at the lighting patterns in the background, you will see them shift as the sun moves in the evening. There's no deep message to that, just the frustration that my iMac couldn't record the whole thing in one take. I did manage a...

Thanks all for the kind words. It's hard work trying to shear off all the complications and just to focus on the raw essentials in a language that most can follow. I'm glad you think it is working. I'm hoping that the forthcoming Westminster Hall debate may trigger more interest in the issues...

It strikes me that one aspect of this that has been overlooked is that Mike Godwin is an American. Over here it has been almost impossible to get researchers, statisticians, analysts etc. to actually look at the PACE stuff, even those who make a big show of denouncing bad science. The few that...

Simon Wessely said "That’s not true. We started with Oxford and then added CDC 1994 when it appeared. Look at 1997 CBT trial, 1999 trial etc. We even compared the 2 in various papers. It didn’t make much difference to the results. it’s all here if you actually want to check" If you look at the...

I think there needs to be some sort of central resource where folk involved with insurance companies can look at other people's experiences and discoveries.

I'm UK based, and was part of a group working on the PACE trial - a £5 million study trying desperately to prove that CBT and graded exercise could help and even cure ME. If you look at David Tuller's stuff, you'll see that it was complex. We have now produced a number of articles and studies...

"I should have ..." Hmm, I know that feeling so well. Thinking a bit more about things, while we were chasing PACE for further information and data, then producing analyses, we had very clear goals and fairly well-defined obstacles. When we had finished the analysis etc., suddenly there wasn't...

Well, I started to read it, felt mentally bloated, looked at the scroll bar on the right, realized how much more there was of it, and lost the will to live. I suppose that's just a phase in "Reading The Movement Action Plan." So many words, so little content. But that's a shame because the core...

Yes, it is very bleak, but very real. I liked the Unrest film, but it was the glossy Hollywood take - necessary to get the picture across, but centered on an intelligent, well-off, well-connected presentable young woman. Voices from the Shadows is reality for sadly so many folk with ME. I saw it...

The problem would be getting expert witnesses to testify. I keep trying different people in the UK for one thing or another, and they keep saying that they have heard of the controversy, but are too busy to get involved. I take that as a code for "it's the old boys' network".