Medicine Journal : Chronic fatigue syndrome - Stephen Perry 2020

[Sly Saint]

Abstract
Chronic fatigue syndrome is a debilitating condition that can lead to severe impairment of function. It places a considerable burden on the individual, their carers and society. No single cause has been found, and it is likely to be a condition of multiple aetiologies. Delays in diagnosis can lead to increased disability and less chance of successful treatment. Effective treatments are available in the form of cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise therapy, and both treatments have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

https://www.medicinejournal.co.uk/article/S1357-3039(20)30229-2/pdf

https://scihubtw.tw/10.1016/j.mpmed.2020.09.007

Psychiatric aspects of general medicine| Volume 48, ISSUE 12, P765-768, December 01, 2020

fish and chips paper.

 

[Cheshire]

What an ideal time to publish this paper...

 

[Sean]

Just got those bad timing blues

 

[Barry]

Effective treatments are available in the form of cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise therapy, and both treatments have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

My bold .

 

[Peter T]

Blood letting was probably recommended at one time by the Royal College of Physicians here in the UK, but given both NIH in the US, and imminently NICE in the UK in their new guidelines, are no longer supporting GET and CBT as treatments for ME it would be as reasonable to publish an article in 2020 recommending blood letting for ME.

It does not inspire confidence that so called experts are so out of touch or are being deliberately disingenuous.

 

[Barry]

Given the never ending stream of such papers that seem to be emitting from these BPS folk for ME/CFS, presumably there will be ones still in the pipeline even after next April.

 

[rvallee]

What is the purpose of this ignorant garbage? I mean seriously what is gained by someone fully ignorant of the whole thing deciding to put their ignorance down? It doesn't add any useful knowledge, doesn't contribute anything at all. Many journalists actually manage to do better at summarizing the current state of knowledge.

Isn't publishing research about contributing to knowledge? This is just a cheap mish-mash of old ignorant stuff. What does it even pretend to add? Or was it just an easy paper knowing that nobody actually checks the substance on this topic and thus people can just write whatever they want and call it a published paper for their resume.

Seriously a high school student can do better than this. Not your average high school student but that is still the level of competence required to do better than this pointless jumble of mostly random bits.

 

[Snowdrop]

From the paper:

The author would like to thank Dr Alastair Santhouse for his contribution to the previously published version of the article.

So there is a previous iteration of this. Personally, on the face of it, it seems like someone called in a favour of support for BPS.

 

[Trish]

I can't access the full article.
Interesting to see how limited and out of date the full list of references is:

Key references

1. • Fukuda K.Straus S.E.Hickie I.Sharpe M.C.Dobbins J.G.Komaroff A.
   Chronic fatigue syndrome: a comprehensive approach to its definition and management.
   Ann Intern Med. 1994; 121: 953-959
2. • Lim E.J.Ahn Y.C.Jang E.S.Lee S.W.Lee S.H.Son C.G.
   Systematic review and meta-analysis of the prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME).
   J Transl Med. 2020; 18: 100
3. • National Collaborating Centre for Primary Care
   Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy) guidelines for diagnosis and management in adults and children.
   2007 (CG53)
   http://www.nice.org.uk/Guidance/CG53
   Date accessed: August 4, 2016
4. • Holgate S.T.Komaroff A.L.Mangan D.Wessely S.
   Chronic fatigue syndrome: understanding a complex illness.
   Nat Rev Neurosci. 2011; 12: 539-544
5. • White P.D.Goldsmith K.A.Johnson A.L.et al.
   Comparison of adaptive pacing therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, graded exercise therapy, and specialist medical care for chronic fatigue syndrome (PACE): a randomised trial.
   Lancet. 2011; 377: 823-836

Further reading

1. • Roberts E.Wessely S.Chalder T.Chang C-K.Hotopf M.
   Mortality of people with chronic fatigue syndrome: a retrospective cohort study in England and Wales from the south London and Maudsley NHS trust biomedical research centre (SLaM BRC) clinical record interactive search (CRIS) register.
   Lancet. 2016; 387: 1638-1643r
2. • Smith M.E.B.Haney E.McDonagh M.et al.
   Treatment of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: a systematic review for a National Institutes of Health Pathways to Prevention work-shop.
   Ann Intern Med. 2015; 162: 841-850

And the author:

Stephen E. Perry
Affiliations
Stephen E Perry MB ChB MSc MRCPsych is a Civilian Consultant Military Psychiatrist at DCMH, Her Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth, UK. Competing interests: none declared

I think he's likely to be well known to Wessely, given Wessely's key role in military psychiatry.

 

[Perrier]

What is the purpose of this ignorant garbage? I mean seriously what is gained by someone fully ignorant of the whole thing deciding to put their ignorance down? It doesn't add any useful knowledge, doesn't contribute anything at all. Many journalists actually manage to do better at summarizing the current state of knowledge.

Isn't publishing research about contributing to knowledge? This is just a cheap mish-mash of old ignorant stuff. What does it even pretend to add? Or was it just an easy paper knowing that nobody actually checks the substance on this topic and thus people can just write whatever they want and call it a published paper for their resume.

Seriously a high school student can do better than this. Not your average high school student but that is still the level of competence required to do better than this pointless jumble of mostly random bits.

Yes, RVallee, "people can just write whatever they want and call it a published paper for their resume." We have all seen this in all the colleges and universities everywhere, and there is an awful lot of it in the ME area. In the meantime, folks are desperately sick, desperately in need of help, and this garbage is churned out.
Has there been any encouraging news in the ME area lately??? I can't think of anything except Alain Moreau's paper, which is really elegant and really well done, and shows he is truly thinking things out (but it's focus is diagnostics and not yet helping to relieve the suffering--I hope he comes up with something soon.)

 

[Barry]

Has there been any encouraging news in the ME area lately???

The draft NICE guideline.

 

[Perrier]

The draft NICE guideline.

oops....))

 

[Mike Dean]

Perry's article appears in a section called
PSYCHIATRIC ASPECTS OF GENERAL MEDICINE

A companion article:
Functional disorders and ‘medically unexplained physical symptoms’
https://www.medicinejournal.co.uk/article/S1357-3039(20)30228-0/fulltext
https://sci-hub.ee/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mpmed.2020.09.006

The journal claims:

Elsevier’s Medicine is a continually updated, evidence-based learning resource for trainees. It is an essential tool to help trainees achieve their postgraduate medical qualification, wherever you are in the world. It provides a concise overview of the latest medical knowledge and practice based upon the UK Core Medical Training curriculum, with each article written by invited qualified experts. Given its comprehensive coverage of internal medicine, this resource is also an ideal companion for GPs and consultants in the acute medicine setting.​

It would be interesting to know how long ago these "chapters" were commissioned.

 

[Invisible Woman]

evidence-based

Cue sarcastic laughter.

 

[chrisb]

It is rather surprising that the author makes little attempt to cite evidence in support of his claims.

 

[Barry]

It is rather surprising that the author makes little attempt to cite evidence in support of his claims.

So why am I not feeling surprised ...

 

[Forbin]

It would be interesting to know how long ago these "chapters" were commissioned.

Article was possibly uploaded with a 300 baud modem.

 

[dave30th]

It is rather surprising that the author makes little attempt to cite evidence in support of his claims.

Why would evidence be necessary???

 

[chrisb]

Wasn't there a time when it was considered customary? I forget.

 

[dave30th]

Wasn't there a time when it was considered customary? I forget.

I think you're remembering the Before Times.