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Thought this was an interesting study because the authors tried to blind patients and therapist by providing a sham intervention to CBT. There were three groups: CBT with sleep education and time-in-bed restrictions RT: progressive muscle relaxation train PR: a placebo/sham intervention that...

(Note that this is an old trial from 2001) Abstract Context: Use of nonpharmacological behavioral therapy has been suggested for treatment of chronic primary insomnia, but well-blinded, placebo-controlled trials demonstrating effective behavioral therapy for sleep-maintenance insomnia are...

My devious plan is to make the algorithm of the tool so complex and realistic that only those who understand clinical trials methodology know how to use it and so nobody sees the benefit of using it anymore. No seriously, I think it might be useful to name and treat this as a separate form of...

It might not be worth including this into risk of bias tools because interventions that influence how participants report subjective outcome measures are likely going to be totally flawed unless they use objective outcomes. I meant more that we should point out that this is a separate form of...

When we discuss the problems with trials on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) we usually mention things like lack of blinding + subjective outcomes or the lack of a credible control group etc. These are methodological weaknesses that are generally regarded as...

Interesting article. Good to see some common sense questioning in the field of psychology. Thanks for posting it here. It seems that most reviews don't see a lack of a control condition as a potential source of bias. They simply mention the control condition briefly and don't discuss problems...

I doubt that activity levels and rest have such a big influence on prognosis. It would be good if research on long covid could provide some reliable data on this.

Already discussed here: https://www.s4me.info/threads/bias-due-to-a-lack-of-blinding-a-discussion.11429/#post-203661 Unfortunately, Berger is not uncontroversial.

Comments on the CDC evidence review on ME/CFS In a previous blog post, we summarized the draft report of a systematic review on the management of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The review was commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in...

I don't understand why in Appendix F. Risk of Bias for Randomized Controlled Trials (starting on page 228) all trials received the label "Yes" for the question "Outcomes Pre-specified" Does anyone understand what they mean?

My reservations have little to do with the specifics of the test but with the separation between ME/CFS patients and ICF patients. My expectation is that, if there is a true effect, ME/CFS diagnostic criteria would not have separated people almost perfectly so that all ME/CFS patients show a...

Ok but why the almost perfect separation between those who meet ME/CFS criteria and those who don't? If one time in the future something significant is found, it would be really weird that ME/CFS diagnostic criteria would have already separated patients into those who have the abnormality and...

I agree with Hutan. This looks too good to be true. All the male ME/CFS patients had a reduction in workload while all the male ICF patients had an increase in workload at the second CPET. Given how arbitrary ME/CFS diagnostic criteria are, this seems extremely unlikely. Even if there was a...

Summary of the CDC evidence review The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have commissioned a systematic review on the management of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The review is conducted by the Pacific Northwest Evidence-Based Practice Center (EPC) at...

Thanks, yes I plan to work something out if I find the energy and submit it to a journal.

Split from Effect of Galantamine Hydrobromide in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome A Randomized Controlled Trial, 2004, Blacker et al.. The quote in this post refers to the Blacker paper. This might also be of interest. It's the main result of an open-label study by Vermeulen et al. published in 2004...

New blog post: Problems with the MetaBLIND study The MetaBLIND study is likely the largest study on the effect of blinding in randomized trials to date. Contrary to expectations, the study did not find a relationship between exaggerated treatment effects and lack of blinding of patients...

Seems that the study was funded by a pharmaceutical company. It reads: Some of the researchers involved in the study: Behan in the UK, Van der Meer in the Netherlands, De Meirleir in Belgium, Klimas in the US etc. Michael Sharpe was on the Data Monitoring Committee.

Seems that they have also excluded this Belgian RCT on methylphenidate because of "inadequate duration". Given the many flaws the studies that were included, have I think it would be best if they included studies with inadequate duration and simply highlight their limitation and shortcoming...

This is apparently the largest drug trial ever done in ME/CFS patients. It tested the use of galantamine (an acetyl-cholinesterase inhibitor that is used to treat cognitive decline in for example Alzheimer's) at 4 different doses against a placebo. 434 ME/CFS participated in the trial in...