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Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-Metabolic Disease or Disturbed Homeostasis? (2018) Theoharides et al

Discussion in 'ME/CFS research' started by hixxy, Aug 6, 2018.

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  1. hixxy

    hixxy Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30076265
    http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/early/2018/08/03/jpet.118.250845 (full PDF available)
     
    hixxy, Aug 6, 2018
    #1
    Barry, Inara, leokitten and 9 others like this.
  2. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    I have glanced through the paper. The authors have given a huge list of references to biomedical ME research papers, and written an outline of what they found from reading these papers, so most of their lengthy paper is a literature review.

    They then come up with a hypothesis:

    I gather that the lead researcher on this paper researches mast cells, so not surprisingly the hypothesis proposed gives a central role to mast cell activation. They also make some suggestions of drugs that might help if their hypothesis is correct.

    I have insufficient knowledge to judge whether this hypothesis could be helpful. I wonder what our resident experts think - @Jonathan Edwards, @Simon M, @JaimeS ... ?
     
    Trish, Aug 6, 2018
    #2
    Barry, Cheshire, Inara and 11 others like this.
  3. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Mm...

    Seems a bit like inspirobot. Select sexy words at random, connect at random, hypothesis ready.
     
    Jonathan Edwards, Aug 6, 2018
    #3
    Barry, adambeyoncelowe, Cheshire and 5 others like this.
  4. JaimeS

    JaimeS Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    My first impression:

    Like a lot of papers that zoom out like this, I think that they have a great deal valuable to say, but that their final conclusions may be a little hasty.

    There's a book along similar lines that I highly recommend called The Stress Response of Critical Illness. It was mind-bendingly intriguing, and a lot of what you see touched on in this paper is further explicated there.

    [Edit: uhhhhh NO. Inspirabot is about right. I read it thoroughly and it's pretty crap. Sorry guys.]
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2018
    JaimeS, Aug 6, 2018
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  5. Pechius

    Pechius Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Unfortunately, you're probably right.
    Despite the fact that they obviously have reviewed much of the important literature, they have some trouble connecting the dots..
    E.g., this paragraph appears to be self-contradictory and not much better than some psychobabble we all have seen before..:

    I think ME is a disease which will likely be solved by people who dedicate all or most of their time to it, and not by the ones looking at it as a side gig. Theoharides is certainly a very smart guy and I'm glad that he's looking into ME, but I also think this paper reflects the lack of attention to details and nuance. He has a lot on his plate and is printing articles like it's going out of style, so maybe that's why..
     
    Pechius, Aug 7, 2018
    #5
    Barry, Trish, JaimeS and 1 other person like this.
  6. JaimeS

    JaimeS Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    The number of errors are pretty prodigious, even down to insulting other researchers by misinterpreting the conclusions in their work!
     
    JaimeS, Sep 1, 2018
    #6
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