European Research Network to Improve Diagnosis, Treatment and Health Care for Patients with Persistent Somatic Symptoms (EURONET-SOMA)

Thought it could be helpful to have an own thread on EURONET-SOMA.

From the blurb:

Persistent somatic symptoms are common and complex phenomena which pose major challenges to psychosomatics and many other medical specialties across Europe.

[...]

Chronic courses of disorders are common and significantly impair quality of life, and increase health care use as well as health care costs.

Etiological concepts of persistent somatic symptoms differ substantially between medical specialties. The lack of medical guidelines or specialized treatment options for persistent somatic symptoms in several European countries present additional challenges for practitioners and affected patients.

Given that research efforts on persistent somatic symptoms would largely benefit from a more coordinated and collaborative approach across Europe, we have come to recognize the urgent need to establish a European research network: [...] (EURONET-SOMA).

By bringing researchers from all over Europe to take a seat at the table, we sought to develop a joint research agenda to address the pressing needs for improvement in the recognition, diagnosis, explanation and treatment of patients with persistent somatic symptoms.


According to ME-PEDIA:

"The meetings were organized by Bernd Löwe and funded by the Ministry of Science and Research of Hamburg.[2][3] Other prominent members include Per Fink, Chris Burton, Francis Creed, Peter Henningsen, Omer van den Bergh and Judith Rosmalen

"Other prominent members include Per Fink, Chris Burton, Francis Creed, Peter Henningsen, Omer van den Bergh and Judith Rosmalen .[3]."

Michael Sharpe also appears as a co-author in papers from this group, see:

https://www.euronet-soma.eu/publications/

 

Of course.

So I guess this is a political thing since they never deviate from doing the same stuff over and over again, it's not as if this will change any of this, they couldn't possibly align more than they do already, since they're all doing the same thing over and over again anyway.

As in their research is already straddling the line of being basically just copy-pasting the same stuff, you can't coordinate more than that.

 

And here's some of the members' output -- see projects and publications listed here:

"SOMACROSS":

Development and Persistence of Somatic Symptoms
(SOMACROSS - Persistent SOMAtic Symptoms ACROSS Diseases: From Risk Factors to Modification)

The new Research Unit RU 5211, led by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, is funded for four years by the German Research Foundation (DFG) with 4.6 million Euro.

The overall aim is to investigate which risk factors and mechanisms lead to the persistence of somatic symptoms across diverse disorders. Persistent somatic symptoms (PSS), such as fatigue, pruritus and gastrointestinal symptoms pose a significant burden and challenge in health care.


Speaker of the Coodination Team ('SOMA.CORE') is Bernd Löwe.

Judith Rosmalen and Peter Henningsen on the Advisory Board.


Every project has its nice diagram -- like this project for Fatigue in Primary Biliary Cholangitis: Factors Associated With Severity and Persistence as Future Therapeutic Targets (SOMA.LIV) :

Spoiler: Diagram 'SOMA.LIV'

Associated project: Long COVID: Psychological Risk Factors and Their Modification (SOMA.COV)

One of the principal investigators is Bernd Löwe.


For people new to the forum:

I don't take issue with asking about psychological factors per se, it's just that most researchers with that approach and affiliated with this network claim to have found evidence that isn't there. They mostly either apply poor trial design/ methodology or misrepresent their results, or both.


Edited to insert some links into text.

 

Scientific framework and overarching protocol of the interdisciplinary SOMACROSS research unit (RU 5211)
BMJ Open 2022;12:e057596. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057596

Posted on an own thread.

 

"The EURONET-SOMA networks meets regularly twice a year: a brief meeting takes place during the annual conference of the European Association of Psychosomatic Medicine (EAPM). This meeting is open to all attendees of the EAPM conference. The second, more extensive meeting takes place in autumn in one of the EURONET-SOMA member institutions and is by invitation only. "

https://www.euronet-soma.eu/activities/

Next EAPM working group meeting:

15th to 17th June, 2023, Wroclaw

https://www.eapm-conference.org/


Current EAPM president is Michael Sharpe.

Rona Moss-Morris will also speak at the EAPM conference -- about:

Mind-Body Dualisms and why it is time to retire the label medically unexplained symptoms

and she will have a 'Master Class' on

CBT tailored to treating anxiety and depression associated with living with a long-term medical condition: The why and the how

 

So I guess the next moves are yet another label rebranding and pretending that they're addressing mental health issues "associated with" while both pretending that they don't imply causality but of course saying so anyway. Looks like they're going with LTC, long-term medical/physical conditions.

So just more of the same. I can't believe this scam works so effortlessly. They really don't have to put any effort into it, no one in a position to do anything has the courage to end this nightmare so they can just say and do whatever they want and no one cares or checks.

Notable:

Basically as serious as a Goop conference, except they take themselves far more seriously. Just not the actual job.

This will be a hoot:

It won't, in fact the AIs will probably be quite rude in dismissing all their evidence and be very patient in explaining to them what logical fallacies and fallacious reasoning are.

And holy crap do all the rebranded terms/acronyms are featured, functional this and somatoform than with a dash of persistent and whatnot. They all mean the exact same thing and there they go around pretending they're not. I guess that's one way to make a 3-day program of basically copy-paste stories.

 

Thanks for posting -- did not see this one:

FRIDAY 16 | 10:15-11:30 | KAMIENICA ROOM

SYMPOSIUM
CFS/ME: CONTROVERSY AND COMMUNICATION FOLLOWING THE 2022 UK NICE GUIDELINES

CHAIR
Per Fink.
Research Clinic for Functional disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University Hospital. Denmark

• What is CFS, the evidence for treatment and the controversy?
  Michael Sharpe. University of Oxford. President of the European Association of Psychosomatic Medicine (EAPM). United Kingdom.
• Facts and myths of CFS/ME, how do we navigate, in research and in the clinic?
  Per Fink.
  Research Clinic for Functional disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University Hospital. Denmark
• Wake me when it´s over. A personal story about a rapid recovery from CFS/ME.
  Live Landmark.
  Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Norway
• Debate and misinformation in the press and on social media - can we do anything about it?
  Lene Toscano.
  Center for Functional Disorders, Region of Southern Denmark. Denmark

https://www.eapm-conference.org/index.php/program/main-program

'Debate and misinformation in the press and on social media -- can we do anything about it?'


Edit: Also posted on the NICE guideline thread

 

Basically it is OK for them to make all kinds of unsupported claims, from etiology to treatments to death threats or whatever. It is never OK to challenge them in any way though. Never. That is not how science works. Anyone challenging them is just spreading misinformation. Science never needs to be challenged in any way. It is great as it is and Earth is the centre of the universe. The psychosomatic dogma is especially solid, proven and unshakeable. It has never been wrong. Never happened in the history of medicine. Oh wait...

 

Alas, SOMA is a drug for sleep.

How appropriate. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz