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Just further on the Standard Mean Difference, Cochrane says: So, that would be something to check for, when looking at SMD's. 'What was the standard deviation that was used for the denominator in the calculation? Was it the standard deviation of the treatment and control arms combined, or...

Thanks @CRG and @cassava7, together those findings suggest CBT isn't worth much at all. SMD = standardised mean difference And, it's worth keeping in mind that the homeopathy trials were presumably nominally blinded, whereas the CBT trials were not. And the CBT trials frequently included...

Somatic means 'relating to the body', 'physical'. It's the opposite of 'psychosomatic'. It's easy to get confused about it, as I think even just mentioning that symptoms are somatic raises the possibility that they are psychosomatic. But, the use here is incorrect. There are a number of...

The 13-fold reduction in CD8+ T cells from maximal exertion to 4 hours after in the healthy controls is particularly remarkable, compared to no significant change in CD8+T cells in the women with ME/CFS. I've briefly tried looking to see if such a decrease following exercise is normal, but I...

Given that we seem to react abnormally to exertion, looking for abnormal responses in cell types and gene expression as a result of exertion seems like a really good thing to do. Here is the data on changes in cell type abundances. There look to be some interesting things there. It's a shame...

On that thread, someone (Mark) asks about this study: Effect of using a structured pacing protocol on post-exertional symptom exacerbation and health status in a longitudinal cohort... 2022 Parker et al Maybe someone could direct the person to the Science for ME thread and/or explain about...

I don't find the definition of pacing to be helpful. Pacing is not primarily chopping up activities into bits and interspersing rest time. It's making difficult decisions about what can and cannot be done. Like, do you work from home, do you work part-time, do you give up work entirely? Do...

It's certainly commitment to the cause to be paying that publishing fee. For sure it's a difficult field. I'm wondering if David Marks would have an easier time of it if he himself collaborated more. I see he got some feedback on an earlier draft of this paper, but perhaps he could find one...

Moderation note: Other relevant threads are: Well-known, famous people with ME/CFS Members Only - closed in January 2023 Well-known, famous people with fibromyalgia Well-known, famous people with Covid-19 and Long Covid Famous people diagnosed with neurological diseases

David Marks continues to put an enormous effort into exposing BPS harm. I agree that sometimes the articles don't quite get everything right though. And I'm not sure about this journal - it seems to be a pay to publish journal, taking all sorts of papers...

Risk factors for suicidal ideation in a chronic illness 2022 Elliott and Jason This paper was discussed in the 2023 January IACFS/ME Journal Club, click through for the You tube link.

Who was it that said being in support groups leads to poor outcome? That thread discusses the idea put about by BPS supporters that support groups are problematic in ME/CFS and similar illnesses. e.g. Any review of literature relevant to support groups and peer support for Long Covid (the...

There are some more threads tagged with 'peer support' and 'support groups' - click on the tag at the top left of the thread. BPS researchers have been quite active in being concerned about peer support e.g. Surely that literature is relevant to the question addressed by this paper?

Yep, that's Greenhalgh referencing her own paper, suggesting it was a successful application of the hermeneutic technique. So, hermeneutics seems to be pretty much a fancy word for saying "we did whatever the hell we liked as we searched for papers that supported the stories we wanted to...

Thanks @Art Vandelay. I'm not sure that I can bear to read the rest of the transcript. I'm trying to think how that GP could have come to his conclusion. All I can think is that he has had some patients with LC come to him, having been traumatised by the sudden change the illness has caused...

For newer members, Maes and Morris have a bit of a track record of producing vague ME/CFS papers with a lot of suggestions of 'neuroinflammation' and 'immune activation' and 'oxidative stress', often a few diagrams of something, but nothing much that is solid, no new data for example, that might...

I have been accused of being too flippant a few times in my life, I guess it's a failing of mine. My use of the word "fatter" is probably an illustration of that. I was trying to make a point about the prejudice that is being applied - I think many medical professionals really want to believe...

With the paper's aim of finding out how peer support has worked in other conditions with commonalities with Long Covid, you might have thought that they would look at the literature on peer support in ME/CFS. If you did, you would be wrong. There's no mention at all of ME/CFS, CFS or chronic...

I think there would be plenty of avenues to explore regarding a treatment, if the reported finding was confirmed. For example there has been the discussion about interferon making endothelial tissue leaky, and hence the idea that reducing the interferon could help. There's still the question of...

He was and is chair of the independent expert panel for the NICE / SIGN / RCGP Managing the long-term effects of COVID-19 guideline. I think he's seen that document through two versions, both of which have involved public consultation. Science for ME made submissions to both the first and...