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Same here in this article from Science based medicine. It states: "Their recommendation for acupuncture benefits ≤3 months is based, by their own admission, mostly on very low quality evidence and some low quality evidence. What does this mean? Mostly that the trials are not properly controlled...

So the guideline recommends exercise, CBT, ACT, acupuncture, antidepressants etc. But it actively discourages the use of pain medication (NSAIDS, opoids, paracetamol).

I came across this article while researching the history of psychosomatic medicine. It looks interesting but unfortunately, I do not have access to it. Is anyone able to read it?

The Emotionally Disturbed Child as a Family Scapegoat Ezra F. Vogel and Norman W. Bell The phenomenon of scapegoating is as old as human society. Sir James Frazer records, in The Golden Bough,2 numerous instances, reaching back to antiquity, of public scapegoats, human and otherwise. He views...

I think we have seen previous studies from this Taiwanese database, although not in a prominent journal such as Scientific Reports. I think this study has the same issues that we previously noted in an American prevalence study that used ICD-codes: these probably don't select CFS as it is...

Abstract Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) has been defined as unexplained relapsing or persistent fatigue for at least 6 consecutive months. Immuno-inflammatory pathway, bacterial infection, and other causes play essential roles in CFS. Helicobacter pylori infection is one of the most common...

This looks interesting, thanks to Andy and Simon for highlighting it. Only 2.6% reported persistent fatigue at week 6.

There's also the CBT study by the Dutch group of Bleijenberg and Van Der Meer. The main results were published in The Lancet in 2001. As far as I know, the follow-up results have never been reported but I found two people who stated that during a conference Bleijenberg announced that there was...

So it seems that in all studies of GET and CBT the control catches up over time? FITNET, FINE, PACE CURE and now GETSET all seem to report no statistically significant difference at follow-up. One reason might be the reduction in sample size due to drop-outs. Another possible explanation is...

New blog post: the dark psychosomatic history of epilepsy. https://mecfsskeptic.com/the-dark-psychosomatic-history-of-epilepsy/

I thought this study of Wessely' was interesting, indicating that something might have happened during the Gulf War. Even though Wessely himself prefers to give a BPS explanation focused on anxiety, the data look interesting. Health of UK servicemen who served in Persian Gulf War - The Lancet...

What do you mean with the reference to Gulf War Syndrome? I thought Wessely'study was persuasive that something might have happened in the Gulf War that caused the symptoms of GWS.

Really? I thought that case wasn't as clear either. From Wikipedia:

I tend to disagree cause that sort of what fatigue is: a perception. So I don't see the difference between fatigue and the perception of fatigue. When it comes to measuring fatigue I think that questionnaires will be more accurate than surrogate measures like actigraphy. One can be really...

It also looks like they didn't do an intention to treat analysis because they say they randomized 72 patients, but only analyse the results of 50. Anyway, the results clearly show no meaningful differences between the two groups, even if the authors tried to search for them by analyzing all...

I'm still waiting for the first study that appropriately selected COVID-patients and a control group, followed them up for a long enough time (6 months or longer) and that used a stringent threshold for disability (for example ME/CFS criteria), not just how many people report symptoms. CFS...

The big question that the authors don't answer is: how do we know that central sensitization is happening or not? They define central sensitization as "amplification of neural signalling within the CNS that elicits pain hypersensitivity" but as far as I can see one can't really test or measure...

More info here: https://www.s4me.info/threads/central-sensitization-a-matter-of-concern.5346/

Looks like most people report onset of PEM shortly after exertion @Trish

Background Post-exertional malaise (PEM) is a defining characteristic of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) but there is insufficient research dissecting the nature of PEM from the patients’ perspective. Methods A PEM questionnaire administered to 150 ME/CFS patients...