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Is there any reason for the xrays of knives or is that an attempt to suggest violent extremists are a thing in PACE debates?

An interesting blog post. It argues that sepsis and ME/CFS have in common what is called “heterogeneous perfusion”. There is a picture of what that looks like. According to the blog, this would explain many of the characteristics of ME/CFS...

If we wait for identification of the pathology in ME/CFS before taking it seriously then we might have to wait another 30 years. We need funding and a real effort to make progress and figure out what is happening. Cart before the horse and so on.

@Diane O'Leary I'm pleased that you're highlighting the importance of the IOM report. I believe it wasn't well received because patients have come to expect the worst from authorities, and some did not like the illness definition it also proposed as they preferred the ICC. It does seem to have...

That cartoon is for researchers who consistently fail to control for biased responses and then find that CBT works for everything.

Whether psychogenic diagnoses really protect patients from harm is an interesting question, because the patients that end up seeing a quack probably do so because the interaction with mainstream healthcare was unsatisfactory. Unfairly diagnosing the patient with a psychogenic disorder is a...

There is some sense in the psychogenic diagnosis, but not because psychogenic labels are generally sensible. Resources are limited, investigation and "trying to see what helps" can lead to iatrogenic harm. The psychogenic diagnosis strategy needs to replaced by something that avoids the many...

The current strategy is to treat unexplained symptoms as psychogenic. This is based on several assumptions: that the mind has enormous power and can produce all sorts of symptoms, that known diseases are rarely missed, that most or all diseases are known, that treatment for psychogenic...

I think Jonathan Edwards is concerned that the current psychosocial quackery could be replaced by biomedical quackery, which could be cause even more harm. Therefore the emphasis on setting high standards of evidence for everyone.

They did this because their arguments for (covertly) treating ME as mental illness cannot withstand criticism, so they pre-emptively smeared their opponents. They succeeded in creating an environment that doesn't allow a serious discussion of this topic. But we can't avoid this debate forever...

I do think that CBT/GET proponents are clearly trying to suggest to broader society that CFS is psychogenic, while insisting that they don't actually view it that way. This does lead to insufficient or inappropriate care, even if there is no treatment for ME/CFS in particular yet. Once a...

I thought of it as a wake up call that a serious problem was being overlooked.

In my story, I think some of the loss of trust came from doctors acting like there wasn't a problem. Now I know that they were probably taught that they had to reassure the patients and avoid suggesting that there was any illness. In the long term this then led to loss of trust and contributed...

It's probably a case of psychoneuroimmunobabble.

Initially, when I rested and stayed at home, I did feel better, and thought this meant that I was well on the way to being cured and so tried to get back into my old life. This always resulted in a relapse. It seems that Action for ME is at a level of understanding where resting is recognized as...

Agreed. For a while though, the idea that pacing would lead to meaningful improvement was popular. Four or five years ago, when I joined PR, it was a common belief.

Agreed. For a while though, the idea that pacing would lead to meaningful improvement was popular. Four or five years ago, when I joined PR, it was a common belief.

Please leave comments and thank you on her blog. This article clearly took time and effort.

It's surprising that people think this is a clever argument. Not knowing the reason doesn't mean that one's preferred (but unproven) explanation is the right one. It's the kind of argument homeopaths sometimes make: that we should accept their explanation because science hasn't been able to...

Someone thinks they are defending good research from excessive criticism. https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l639/rr