Cochrane Review: 'Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome', Larun et al. - New version October 2019 and new date December 2024

Perhaps I am attributing more conscious malice to Cochrane than they deserve and this was a purely administrative action to reflect the changes to the editors’ note on their abandoning the new review process. However it will cause the casual reader to misperceive this as a new current review, which can be very misleading especially as it may seem it has been updated since the pandemic and Long Covid.

Certainly if I am looking at references I always start with the most recent date.

 

I don't know what is standard practice at Cochrane but it does seem that previous editorial notes did not result in a new publication of the entire review. For example the previous note about the update in 2020, did not result in a new version.

 

Does anyone have access to the 2024 version?

Am I correct to think that the latest search of the literature took place in May 2014, so more than 10 years ago?

 

Discussion starts here: https://www.s4me.info/threads/petit...rapy-for-cfs-review.35109/page-42#post-573319

 

Is this what you meant or am I getting confused?

https://www.cochrane.org/CD003200/CENTRALED_exercise-treatment-adults-chronic-fatigue-syndrome

 

And even if they don’t intend it to be used that way it will allow citers to ‘choose’ which one they prefer

 

To clarify myself: I can see the abstract and summary of the 2024 version of the review but not the full text. I do not have access to download it. I was wondering if anyone else have access to check if it is indeed the same as the 2019 but with the editorial note added to it.

In the latest version (the 2019 version) I have access to, the latest literature search by the author team was conducted in may 2014. It says for example:

So any studies published after may 2014 were not included. The GETSET trial for example was not included in the review.

I think it's rather absurd to publish a review in 2024 whose latest literature search was more than ten years ago.

 

Very true. The 2024 version is said only to differ in the editorial note from the 2019, so you are right the 2024 article is based on a 2014 literature search.

Profoundly mis leading to a casual observer.

[corrected one year]

 

New versions of the review were published when the authors responded to some of the feedback and comments.

On PubMed I found the following versions of the review by Larun et al. (the first two versions of this review were by a different author team, namely Edmonds et al. in 2001 and 2004).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Larun[Author]+AND+fatigue+syndrome[Title]&sort=date&size=200

I've tried to trace the reason for the update using the version history and indicated this in bold above each version:

First update by Larun et al.: New search and 4 new studies included compared to Edmonds et al.
Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.
Larun L, Brurberg KG, Odgaard-Jensen J, Price JR.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015 Feb 10;(2):CD003200. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003200.pub3.

Feedback has been added along with the author's response
Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.
Larun L, Brurberg KG, Odgaard-Jensen J, Price JR.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Feb 7;2:CD003200. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003200.pub4.

Feedback has been added, along with the author's response.
Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.
Larun L, Brurberg KG, Odgaard-Jensen J, Price JR.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Jun 24;(6):CD003200. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003200.pub5.

Feedback has been added, along with the author's response.
Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.
Larun L, Brurberg KG, Odgaard-Jensen J, Price JR.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2016 Dec 20;12(12):CD003200. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003200.pub6.

Feedback has been added, along with the authors' response
Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.
Larun L, Brurberg KG, Odgaard-Jensen J, Price JR.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017 Apr 25;4(4):CD003200. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003200.pub7.

Amended version in response to comments by Robert Courtney
Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.
Larun L, Brurberg KG, Odgaard-Jensen J, Price JR.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019 Oct 2;10(10):CD003200. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003200.pub8.

New note to announce update has been cancelled
Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.
Larun L, Brurberg KG, Odgaard-Jensen J, Price JR.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2024 Dec 19;12:CD003200. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD003200.pub9.
PMID: 39697147 Review.

 

It seems that between 2019 and 2024 there was no new publication of the same review.

So for the editorial note that explained that the 2019 review was being updated, they did not published a new version. But to announce that this updated is cancelled, they did?

 

Does anyone have acces to the 2024 version? Has anyone checked if it is the same as the 2019 one but with the editorial note added to it?

 

Does anyone have the full new version of the review that they could share?

If I understand correctly, its because the amended review and the editorial note were published on the same day. See this page from October 2, 2019 - references both the publication of the amended review on that day and their intent to update.

 

If anyone has access to the 2024 version, could you share a copy with me?

 

A new comment, addressing today's development has been published: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cds....pub9/detailed-comment/en?messageId=446141743

 

That's possible but in the 2019 version I had stored, I can't find the editorial note. And in the version history it is dated at February 6 2020:

It's a bit confusing because the version history does not mentioned the new 2019 review and changes made to it.

EDIT: perhaps someone could download the text/PDF of the 2019 version here to see if it already contained the editorial note?
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD003200.pub8/full

 

So some people (edit: or AI) seem to be keen to sell the review as 'new' on Xitter

https://cochrane.altmetric.com/details/172238673/twitter