Search results

We used to think that people went into psychiatry because they were nuts themselves. I now tend to think that people go into psychiatry because they don't understand other people and think it will tell them how to. It doesn't. So they still don't.

Mene, mene tekel upharsin...

It could be attributed to 'A senior academic from QMUL'. But I wouldn't like to be more specific.

What about Meghan? She seems feisty and a bit subversive and probably has some high profile friends with ME. Or we could make the whole Royal Family honorary members and become the Royal S4ME. But seriously, Diana did a huge amount for AIDS and sick children. Maybe we should get on to Meghan...

It is complicated because there are all sorts of situations that might fall under 'psychogenic illness'. As a doctor I recognised at least four quite different situations. They are real, but bear no resemblance to ME. The key point is that when symptoms or signs are influenced by thoughts in...

Yes, paediatricians are used to emotional parents (as I was when in this role). But we should not confuse appropriate emotional distress, which is the same for ME or leukaemia, with emotional advocacy. Doctors develop very well rehearsed ways of separating these out. Emotion needs to be kept out...

I can see that and it may not be easy to find a rallying cry that suits all. My itch line would be: 'Whatever the cause of ME the psychiatrists in charge of services have absolutely no clue what they are talking about and their hijacking of the services is nothing more than a scam. And that view...

The people make me think it is implausible. When I got involved in ME research I very deliberately did not do so as a provider of care, as one of 'them'. I had taken the same approach before in 1998 with a lupus group. I was not a lupus doctor but thought my research might be relevant to lupus...

The relevant point I think is that we do not have sufficient evidence to be able to say anything useful about the causation of ME, other than it must be consistent with the epidemiological data on gender ratio and ages of presentation. So no credible mechanism can be excluded. That said, I am...

Well, that shouldn't take a minute to organise, then.

Seems a bit like these self-driving car thingies. Try it out on the road and run a few people over before you see if you know what you are doing. Or to extend the poker metaphor raising the stakes on a pair of threes - and saying so.

The stakes seem to be getting higher every week. Fortunately it seems that some people are showing their hand. I think I may have a lot of reading to do but I get the distinct impression that my distinct impression that 'evidence-based' talking therapies are all based on stuff as bad as PACE is...

I heard you, @Trish.

The weird thing is that I was sure that Chalmers and Glasziou paper was recent.

Gossip is gossip, even in the BMJ office.

But maybe the BMJ blog software will still see my post, since it is posted?

Ah! I see this is 4 years old. I suspect my comment will not get posted!

Well flagged @Sasha. So I posted this: For me there is a deep irony here. I was recently pointed to the Chalmers and Glasziou article. What was so strange was that I had shortly before been asked to give an opinion on a manuscript involving one of these authors that appeared to show a total...

Dear @Liv aka Mrs Sowester, If it were a matter of reaching out to ordinary people I can see that make sense. But my concern here is a purely pragmatic one. Parents reaching out to paediatricians emotionally is pretty guaranteed to confirm the paediatrician's prejudice that the BPS people are...

I wonder if this is a genetic thing. You know, children of people who believe that if it is their football only they are allowed to score goals tend to believe this even more?