BPS attempts at psychologizing Long Covid

Speaking of Long Covid clinics and how some of them are truly awful:

https://twitter.com/user/status/1383062595217850371


I really hope some of the groups are starting to share the material they get on those courses. They have to be exposed, no one can truly understand just how awful and insulting they are until they actually see it.

This is one part that everyone who denies there is a problem completely misses out on: that this ideology is so damn fracking patronizing and assumes we are all two-neuron twits. Somehow it's perfectly acceptable to just infantilize millions of people and no one objects to that, other than we being insulted right to our faces but that clearly does not count.

 

Trial By Error: Northwestern Law Professor Steven Lubet Corresponds with McMaster U. About That WSJ Op-Ed

A recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece accused an apparently powerful “queer feminist wellness collective” of causing an international wave of mental illness, which is being expressed as reports of persistent disabling symptoms after an acute bout of COVID-19. The article was written by a psychiatry resident at Canada’s McMaster University in Canada. Given the arguments advanced by the resident, my friend and colleague decided to check in with the university’s psychiatry department.

Here’s his report.

https://www.virology.ws/2021/04/19/...esponds-with-mcmaster-u-about-that-wsj-op-ed/

 

"Finally, what is your own view, or Dr. Saperson’s, of ME/CFS? Do you consider it a mental-health disorder? Do you consider the PACE recommendations valid? Do you approve of CBT or GET as treatments for ME/CFS?

Kates declined to answer, stating only “I have nothing else to add.” I also wrote to Dr. JoAnn Corey, the director of postgraduate education, who did not reply to repeated inquiries.

This is bad news for prospective ME/CFS patients in Ontario. Given Kates’s evasiveness, and the absence of a clear denial, it seems certain that some McMaster psychiatrists – perhaps many or most, and even Kates and other department leaders – continue to push CBT and GET as ME/CFS treatments, even though the latter has been recognized as contraindicated by the NICE draft guidelines."

 

I remember the broken car stuff from 13 years and years ago in a dubious ME/CFS leaflet that just kept repeating silly metaphors and problematic biopsychosocial venn diagrams for pages and pages. Probably the same repurposed material they are using for Long Covid.

 

The BPS view that symptoms are perpetuated by obsessive/catastrophic thinking is quite prevalent among physiotherapists (as well as central sensitization for chronic pain). That they say that the "mechanism is not controversial" shows how little the evidence base is questioned in the field. (The person who tweeted this is a "Physio Director / Practice Principal" in London.)

https://twitter.com/user/status/1384020054681915393

 

It's telling that this is both the mostly prevailing view but one that few appear willing to defend or define in a way that would be recorded, the truth of what they think is only ever said in private. They all know there is no credible evidence for it and spelling it plainly out-Goops Goop. So it's all just said in code and euphemisms, or simply refusing to bother putting their foot in their mouth.

That's usually a massive red flag, the kind that flashes very brightly.

 

Thank-you to David Tuller and Steven Lubet for not letting this slide and calling these haters out. It must be frustrating at times to feel you are playing whack-a-mole.

This would seem to be one of those moments when silence speaks volumes.

Just for info: McMaster historically* has been the only University in Canada whose Medical school focuses specifically and only on general practitioners and diagnosis. So beating down this thinking is to me a very high priority.

* I say historically because things may have changed since I last knew.

 

I'd also like to point out that while the government (Federal) scrubbed the previous guidelines for ME they have yet to address the void left there so that there is currently no guidance.

And having read the comment below the blog I agree with Andrea that so far it looks like the formal advocacy groups have not done much at all let alone rock any boats. Though there have been individuals who have stepped up (@ScottTriGuy). That's a lot of effort to shoulder. And I remember that there was some conversation directly with the at the time federal health minister. I have sometimes wondered why she was replaced, rather inconvenient for us.

I know I say this having no intention of stepping up but that is due to my inability to function.

I'm always surprised that there are so few people from Canada here. I really have no idea what this suggests.

 

I haven't bothered watching this, but it's on brain training (the Gupta programme) as treatment for Long Covid and in the end there's a doctor endorsing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z04DzTQrgWQ

ETA: Gee, even Paul Garner's positive thinking is recommended during the last minute. What's happening??

 

there will always be parasites looking to cash in on the suffering of others . unpleasant part of human nature .

 

When my car is broken it doesn't stand up on one wheel. They seem to be using their lack of understanding of broken cars as an analogy for their lack of understanding of ME.

 

If it were wheelie broken it might.

 

Terrible article/op-ed trying very hard to insist that brain fog is clearly anxiety and loops in depression and PTSD. Completely clueless.


What to know about anxiety and brain fog

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/anxiety-and-brain-fog


Edit: I think it's part of a series "what to know about anxiety and X", I saw a few others written the same way and must assume this site is just a junk publication

 

An unimpressive article from the BBC on LongCovid clinics (one in Croydon is mentioned).

Inside a long Covid clinic: 'I want to play with my kids again'

It would appear that GET is the only game in town.

 

The Guardian: 'It's terrifying': parent's struggle to get help for children with long Covid
- Lack of research into area means children are being sent away from A&E and parents told they are overanxious

(article is paywalled)