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It seems to be a null result but the authors are trying to avoid that conclusion. This difference is just reaching the p=0.05 threshold. On other parameters the patients don't differ from controls.

I am now a participant in a genetics study :).

Can we rule out that psychogenic illness isn't merely a label for every as of yet undiscovered disease mechanism? Has it ever been definitely been demonstrated to exist?

Hard to believe that this is the same person that thinks ME is psychogenic.

I think they are suggesting that the energy metabolism problems might be a downstream effect of a problem affecting the purine metabolism.

What does this tell us about the illness?

Sounds like the real purpose of this event is to prevent meaningful patient engagement and ensure control remains in the hands of a few "experts".

I remember hearing during one of the recent conferences that there wasn't actually a difference between patients and controls. As far as interesting leads we seem to have: findings indicative of brain inflammation or abnormal brain metabolism, the observation that something in the blood is...

Depends. If a change in the microbiome is observed that correlates with improvement in symptoms, and the microbiome over time reverts back while the patient relapses back into a pre-FMT symptomatic state, I think that would suggest that the gut is very important. Assuming that there is proper...

A variation of the question above: if enough patients take part, would it be possible to recognize several subgroups from the data?

It is not merely arrogance. It is a deliberate tactic to discredit critics of his approach. First it misleads the reader into thinking that CBT for cancer is comparable to CBT for CFS. Then in effect he says that critics object to CBT for petty reasons. I suppose that makes him arrogant in the...

Or maybe the psychotherapy for CFS is horribly misguided and often harmful.

I was thinking about this today. Unblinded clinical trials with self-reported outcomes would probably not be accepted as evidence by Cochrane if the treatment in question was a fringe treatment like homeopathy, reiki, etc. It would probably be considered embarassing to even take any of such...

This sounds interesting. This seems to suggest that the treatment that can reverse these symptoms might have the biggest impact on ability to work.

The people involved in this at Cochrane seem to have difficulty understanding that modest self-reported positive effects is exactly what you would expect if the treatment did not work but was tested without adequately controlling for bias while introducing positive expectations. They might even...

The CBT/GET narrative is apparently designed to anticipate and deflect reports of harm. Presumably its designers created it with the firm conviction that in ME/CFS there is nothing wrong in the body, and that therefore exercise cannot harm. They offer all sorts of explanations and...

That was unlikely to be 15000 patients but included friends and family members. It's also much easier to sign a petition than to give a saliva or blood sample.

Maybe we need a trial of aggressive rest therapy? :D With just minimum activity to prevent the worst deconditioning.

Right. The American patients are often on half a dozen medications.

The vicious circle of psychosomatic medicine: An illness is poorly understood -> psychosomatic medicine zealots seize the opportunity, declare it a psychogenic illness and make up some stigmatizing narrative to discredit sufferers and control them -> entrenched business interests and public...