BPS attempts at psychologizing Long Covid

This is Dr. Jonathon Tomlinson on Twitter.

He's really big on the anxiety angle of everything it seems.

 

This reminds me of other articles on ME/CFS that I've read in The Guardian. They follow the SMC (and Reuters?) playbook, if I remember correctly.

 

***Shudder***

 

From The Guardian link in post #2788

This makes me want to punch the author. I don't want to be soothed about any health problem I have. I want to be investigated and treated for physical problems. The psychological stuff must come later, if it is needed at all.

 

If you do, make sure you make time to to listen to his complaints afterwards.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1333047274386100224



https://twitter.com/user/status/1333068457840177153

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1333043727892406272


https://twitter.com/user/status/1333041051792273417

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1333038830606299136


https://twitter.com/user/status/1333043607293616129


https://twitter.com/user/status/1333057239100297221


https://twitter.com/user/status/1333057429500817408


https://twitter.com/user/status/1333057891696340993

 

There is some evidence of a sort for the childhood trauma theory. For example, two CDC random population CFS studies found it. However both used the so-called empiric criteria (Reeves et al., 2005) which are terrible criteria, in my opinion worse than the Oxford criteria. Recall bias could be a big issue too. So I’m not convinced of the theory but one can easily be challenged if one says there is no evidence.

 

The 2017 study quoted here is a good one to cite https://twitter.com/user/status/1333056410163277824

 

ME Association

@MEAssociation
·
5h

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@eleanormorgan
Long read but, if you're up for it, well worth the effort - 'Long Covid: ‘Is this now me forever?’' | The Observer, 29 November, 2020: https://theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/29/eleanor-morgan-is-still-struggling-with-long-covid-months-after-catching-the-virus… #longcovid #longhaulers #mecfs #cfsme #MyalgicE #pwme

Why is the MEA recommending this ill-informed muddle?

 

I'd say it was Tony Britton. He had the exact same wording for a tweet earlier. I think he runs the account some of the time.

The tweet has now been deleted.

 

A good letter from Charles.
Sadly the Guardian/Observer seems impervious to common sense and tact when it comes to medical matters but one day things might change.

 

what is the 2018 study she's referring to that was the "largest" on "causes" of CFS? I mean, much of the article is perfectly reasonable. It's when she gets to CFS and the purportedly well-established link with childhood trauma that the article goes off the cliff.

 

I wonder what the group of physicians who got long COVID and wrote a letter to editor in a sci journal would have to say about this article? Would they appreciate the suggestion that they may catastrophize too? I am so fed up with the gaslighting.

 

We can live in hope and die in despair! – as my mother used to say, rolling her eyes.

But Katharine Cheston, whom I've not come across before, did a pretty good job of demolishing the absurdities in article on Twitter. It won't dent the Observer's tendency to smugness about being on the right side of every argument, but it made me feel better.

 

I assume it's the Pariante study. Hardly the biggest and not particularly important. Usual nonsense from SMC, they only count research if it's close enough to them to accept that it exists at all.