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I think this is fair comment. I wish I could enlighten Trish but I am not in a position to do so beyond saying that there is nothing very new here. Things are changing for the better, more despite the political manoeuvring than because of it. It is a pity if people feel aggrieved and feel the...

I agree, but Emma gets everything absolutely right in terms of emphasis. I actually think her presentation (which I have re-watched) is the best piece of advocacy I have seen in the five years I have been involved in this. She does not over-egg anything. She mentions objective findings which is...

I agree. It is so disappointing that editors agree to publish abstracts like this. This abstract fails to give the expected results of the study - the comparison of test and control outcomes. As such it should be rejected for publication. It is as simple as that.

From what I saw, Emma was playing her cards exactly right because she had Chris Ponting alongside her saying that we don't know anything about the cause of ME and need to do research to find out.

I actually think it is the exact opposite. The BPS people love it when patients go on about their illness being physical - this is precisely evidence of the 'unhelpful illness beliefs' that started the whole thing off. If patients take the position that they have no beliefs or opinions about...

I am afraid I agree with Esther12 that this sort of sentence walks right into the trap laid by the BPS people. It suggests that patients' views are driven by a desire to see their disease as legitimate rather than by science. Which allows the BPS people to say - and the REAL science shows bla...

I agree, this is the key point. PACE showed the theoretical basis for these treatments was wrong (disability was not caused by illness beliefs). And prior studies were clearly inadequate - Wessely even says his study was not even a trial - just treating some patients!

A nice demonstration of just how transparent the bullshit is (to mix metaphors) when you see how they chat about it. Not only should the student know the non-facts but they should be able to draw on this knowledge. Presumably that means deciding that it was the perfectionism that caused Mary's...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jun/09/suffering-from-brexit-anxiety-you-could-get-free-counselling There getting into politics with a loss leader now. Free brainwashing sessions.

And how do you empathise with someone about their irrational illness beliefs - do you have them too?

Are you sure you are not being too charitable @Lucibee? What horrifies me about psychotherapy is that to a first approximation we do not even know if it ever does more good than harm. My limited experience of sitting in on three therapists' sessions is that they either were useless or harmful. I...

It is so like homeopathy. There is a provision for every ill, with nothing in it.

We used to think that people went into psychiatry because they were nuts themselves. I now tend to think that people go into psychiatry because they don't understand other people and think it will tell them how to. It doesn't. So they still don't.

Mene, mene tekel upharsin...

It could be attributed to 'A senior academic from QMUL'. But I wouldn't like to be more specific.

What about Meghan? She seems feisty and a bit subversive and probably has some high profile friends with ME. Or we could make the whole Royal Family honorary members and become the Royal S4ME. But seriously, Diana did a huge amount for AIDS and sick children. Maybe we should get on to Meghan...

It is complicated because there are all sorts of situations that might fall under 'psychogenic illness'. As a doctor I recognised at least four quite different situations. They are real, but bear no resemblance to ME. The key point is that when symptoms or signs are influenced by thoughts in...

Yes, paediatricians are used to emotional parents (as I was when in this role). But we should not confuse appropriate emotional distress, which is the same for ME or leukaemia, with emotional advocacy. Doctors develop very well rehearsed ways of separating these out. Emotion needs to be kept out...

I can see that and it may not be easy to find a rallying cry that suits all. My itch line would be: 'Whatever the cause of ME the psychiatrists in charge of services have absolutely no clue what they are talking about and their hijacking of the services is nothing more than a scam. And that view...

The people make me think it is implausible. When I got involved in ME research I very deliberately did not do so as a provider of care, as one of 'them'. I had taken the same approach before in 1998 with a lupus group. I was not a lupus doctor but thought my research might be relevant to lupus...