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She did reply. Much in the vein of her Times letter.

I think a letter to the Times is in order. I would be happy to sign. If I did I would make some tiny changes (partly typos). Given the egregious and well document faults in the PACE study, which when subject to objective analysis produced null results, and given the similar failings of related...

Actually, @Sasha, I realise I posted the penultimate version. I have changed this to the final version. But never mind. It is time to talk to CarolMonaghan, I agree.

This. Edit: Oh, sorry, Andy said it already!

I would go as far as to say that to repeat the charge that 'researchers are [] discouraged from working on the disease because of concerns that they could be subject to the level of hostility that Pace researchers have experienced.' shows a total lack of understanding of the motivations of the...

That is a pretty uncompromising statement, indicating that she does not understand basic aspects of experimental design. She produces no arguments, relying on the fact that others thought PACE was OK. The MRC are making complete fools of themselves internationally. Perhaps now is the time to...

I have explained my experience of this in detail, @Inara.It was not in any way difficult. My wife no longer existed as a person. Maybe you have to experience that situation to understand.

The guy writing the article about Camelford was complaining about people being anti-ECT so that ECT had a bad name. He suggested that it was due to people thinking they had lost memory when they hadn't. It seems to me much more to do with the sort of implication running through the Mental health...

I was referring to people expressing the view that ECT is barbaric just because it sounds barbaric.

Red Whale sounds distinctly like a name generated by a computer programme. Red would be for proactive, salient, upbeat, sanguine, bright. Then Whale would indicate powerful but friendly, benign, harmless. (We all know killer whales are really dolphins and black and white.) But of course the...

My thought is that trying to define subgroups in the abstract is never a very useful exercise. Subgrouping can be very useful but on the whole each scientific or clinical issue you want to tackle is likely to benefit from a different way of subgrouping. For instance it can be useful to divide...

That is pretty weird. 'Complaints of persistent memory loss in otherwise well-functioning individuals after recovery from a psychiatric illness through ECT are best viewed as a conversion reaction or a somatoform disorder.' That was certainly not what I was told when informed of the risks...

Because there are objective measures of dosage difference and area of brain difference involved so that studies can be blinded. That makes them completely different from PACE. There have also been sham controls. I also think it very unlikely that psychiatrists have any vested interest in...

The cortex is close under the electrodes and voltages across the electrodes are likely to activate the cortical cells. The hypothalamus is about as deep down as you can get - several inches. I doubt that there would be much voltage across it at doses safe for the cortex.

That is not such a silly question. However, ECT is directed at the cerebral cortex, which is where 'thinking' links sensations to actions. I think ME might be entirely a brain problem but if it is it looks much more like a brain stem or hypothalamic problem. ECT is unlikely to do any good there...

From what I can see there is no reason to be that generous. Listening to and communicating with these people I am pretty sure they fail to understand that patients say they are better because they think its rude not too. Some also say they are better to get shot of a doctor who annoys them...

The second article by Coyne quoted in message #5 gives a number of papers and general sources. In his first article Coyne gives reasons why there does not appear to be a standard randomised controlled trial. I think his reasons are a bit doubtful but that does not really matter when he goes on...

Dr Vogt is right, with a slight twist: #mecfs: Those who think that current criticisms of the PACE trial is about a fair scientific discourse, read @TheLancet editorial from 2011. It is part of an aggressive campaign to discredit anything that smells of scientific argument. There is nothing...

I agree that, particularly in the past, ECT may have been used when it should not and with crude techniques. But surely whether or not we consider a treatment OK must be based on its true medical value and for ECT that is well established. I would say that people who receive ECT in the UK are...

I do not think you will find that explanation anywhere in the professional medical literature. It sounds like an explanation for lay people. Nobody knows how to tell which are bad brain cells and which are good! It seems that in the end you are agreeing that ECT is effective treatment for the...