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I am afraid Sasha is right on this. The trial is negative (I have had information via F&M). That means that the number of improvers was the same in both groups. The only legitimate conclusion is that there were no 'responders'. We have to assume that the apparent response at 6 months in phase 2...

Those viral tests mean nothing. An ANA is always a reasonable thing to check with unexplained illness but any competent rheumatologist can judge whether lupus is even remotely unlikely based on clinical findings and basic blood count and chemistry. I actually think it is a wild goose chase...

Dear Joan, There is no point in getting immunological testing for ME because none of these things have held up as being abnormal in ME. Immune testing may be relevant if there are specific clues pointing to other conditions, but not based on typical features of ME. I would advise against making...

Generally speaking drugs do not stimulate an immune response because they are not proteins. They can sometimes act as haptens (binding to a protein and making the protein look different with the drug attached) and this is presumably important in allergy. But I am not aware that this affects IgG...

Total raised IgM occurs in known autoimmune diseases like RA and lupus. It can also be due to a monoclonal IgM protein with lymphoma but that is easily identified with electrophoresis. Otherwise a total raised IgM probably does not mean much as long as other immunoglobulins are reasonably...

I don't think the US has much to do with anti-PACE articles, @JaimeS. The editor of J Health Psych that produced all the papers is English. Alex Matthees and Carolyn Wilshire are in Australia, Tom Kindlon is in Ireland, Keith Geraghty is in England. The US journalists have been great but I have...

IgG is an antibody that binds to bacteria and viruses and forms a complex that activates cells to kill the organism, swallow it up and digest it. So its job is ridding you of microbes. IgM is similar but less precise and not able to recruit all the responses IgG does. It is a rough and ready...

The methodology and the general style of writing look professional to me. It reads like a scientist writing for other scientists rather than for referees. It is interesting that there are only two authors with Baraniuk as the first. If a senior scientist is the first author on data paper like...

I am in the middle of packing to go away but from what I can see this looks like a very nice study. It is particularly interesting that ME/CFS and the two GWI types are distinct.

James is not a prima donna. He gets on with the work and is prepared to address the difficult questions. Remember it was James who re-wrote the BMJ clinical guidelines. Within the research community he is recognised as the wise owl.

Apparently it is under embargo maybe until tomorrow so keep an eye out chaps. James Baraniuk has been looking at CSF after exercise in CFS and his two types of Gulf War Illness and may be finding something interesting. I think James is about the best scientist we have a present so I am hoping...

It seems to be a new paper from James Baraniuk - looks interesting. I am trying to find out if I am allowed to say anything public.

You mean he's winding me up?!!!

New Baraniuk paper on CSF after exercise looks to be coming out Does anybody know what this is about? Brain chemistry study shows chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War illness as unique disorders Eurekalert science news Was sent by a friendly journalist. I cannot seem to access it.

@Inara, I don't think we have to give up because we cannot tell good from bad science. What I had said was 'What has changed is that the science community itself seems no longer to be able to distinguish between the good and the bad.'. What I meant by the scientific community consists of people...

I was trying to imply that but may not have succeeded. Most bad science is due to people being overenthusiastic about having found something new and amazing. These days it seems it has to be something new and amazing that is also fashionable - maybe because nobody thinks originally any more...

It rules nothing out but it means there is not the slightest motivation for thinking it would be worth looking for such an infection. People do not go potholing in Derbyshire expecting to find a new species of hummingbird.

I guess a negative study is not going to be following a fashion! The researchers usually keep repeating the experiment until it turns out positive. I had one patient who admitted to being the PhD student of a colleague who told him to go and do the experiment again if the results did not confirm...

Yes, it was very different forty years ago. Not that there was no bad science. There has always been bad and good stuff. What has changed is that the science community itself seems no longer to be able to distinguish between the good and the bad. The result is that 80%+ of research is poor...

Dear @Inara, If you work in biomedical science you get to see that there is nothing unusual here. A scientist becomes convinced that they have the answer to a problem and so convinced that they miss the fact that they are using worse and worse methodology to confirm their idea. We had someone...