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I made a formal expression of concern to the CEO of SAS and also to the head of the trustees, who referred me to the CEO. I got no reply. I had replies from two members of the committee and from the originator of SAS, Lord Taverne. There was an agreement that the procedures were not robust and...

They may be public. I was aware of them when I applied so I knew I did not officially qualify. I guess that means that you can access them if you go to a page dealing with potential appointment to a committee. The committee is supposed to have a certain mix of professionals and lay members. Each...

Yes, I advise reading a decent basic epidemiology text. The other main cause is internal stochastic. The immune system is fundamentally dependent on stochastic processes, which are normally hidden but can readily manifest as disease. The nervous system is probably also heavily dependent on...

I have personal emails that are confidential. I doubt Peter Barry had 'advice' as such. I understood that he was told there were rules about who could be appointed. I also think he was advised how those rules had to be interpreted but was in a position to make a case for certain appointments...

I was amused to see Kangasue's comments on another site about this discussion. 90% of academic physicians would probably say POTS is a dubious concept. I suspect it's 95% for MCAS. EDS is of course a recognised category but unlikely to have anythingg to do with the others or ME.

That does not make sense. If a person is suspected of malingering then they are not suspected of having schizophrenia. If schizophrenics are inappropriately being considered as malingerers and not schizophrenics that is a simple clinical incompetence. It is not the same as a doctor knowing...

We have no reason to think this is the correct diagnosis. It has been made by a paediatrician who seems to have left mainstream healthcare and runs something called an e-hospital. The website lists PANDAS as a common problem when its existence is in doubt and if it does exist it is probably...

This belies the common misconception that causation in disease is just genes and environment. As I have said before, this simplistic account is useless. It is not even what you would find in a basic epidemiology textbook. As I said before you can always find something that will fit with a...

Come on, @Hip. Dr Chia has been doing all these studies because he is convinced that enteroviruses are involved. Sadly, the great majority of what goes on in medical science labs is trying to prove a hobby horse, or just what is fashionable - the old adage 'hypothesis-driven evidence'. To make...

It is certainly interesting to see that IAPT seem to have a separate review going on under NICE. However, it looks as if IAPT will be expected to follow the guidance for the specific conditions - which for ME will be set by the GDG. I can see that there is another layer to keep tabs on though...

Mental illness is not the same as schizophrenia. And 'social advocates' can pick up all sorts of wrong ends of sticks. I honestly think this has nothing to do with the case being discussed which is purely about the name given to a child with a psychiatric disorder and whether it is more or less...

I have never heard of anything like that and it seems most improbable. I have never heard of a psychiatrist suggesting that getting better from schizophrenia has anything to do with motivation to get well. You say it is outside the UK - I cannot think where it would be.

I don't think Mark Davis found T cell activation. He reported finding clonal expansion. That might be interpreted as due to activation but it is actually something different and may have another explanation. Moreover, when Jo Cambridge and I tried to work out what his data actually showed we...

I think he is saying something very similar to what I am saying. He is not saying there is inflammation here. He is saying that there may be signals like those of inflammation. That is something very different.

There is no inflammation in ME as far as I know. I do not know what Davis is referring to. There is some signalling going on but it is not causing inflammation. That is the point I am trying to make in response to Chrisb above.

I realise this is confusing. The psychoneuroimmune model seems to cling to the idea that thoughts and the associated stresses could contribute to abnormal immune responses in the sense of failure to clear a virus or an autoimmune disease. Those sorts of immune response are mediated by...

It is drivel. There is no need to implicate 'psychological' causation in any major immune response, whether beneficial or deleterious. There may be slight shifts of this and that but this chapter is full of complete bullshit about Th1 and Th2 responses. The authors are perhaps not aware that...

All the suggestions that there is a problem with the immune system in ME have failed to be borne out by further studies. My guess is that it is normal near enough.

My point was that I think this is the wrong analysis. Psychiatric means disturbed thinking. That would include problems due to hypothyroidism, infection, or whatever. All doctors are taught that infections can cause psychiatric problems. Moreover, the evidence for any one person having PANDAS...

It has been challenged and members of the committee have agreed that evaluation of recommendations was too cursory. I am not sure what more can be achieved. Organisations are entitled to give awards if they want to.