Week beginning 2nd July 2018
News
Unrest The film has won the PBS Independent Lens Audience Award for 2017/18. Congratulations to Jennifer Brea (
@JenB) and all concerned.
Article here Thread here
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Articles, videos, blogs, open letters, book
Trial By Error by David Tuller
''Professor Sharpe’s Pre-Hearing Briefing for Monaghan''
The briefing repeats all their old false arguments that PACE is good science.
Article here Thread here
''My Letter to Fiona Godlee'' the editor-in-chief at The BMJ and editorial director of BMJ. Subject line: ''BMJ’s failure to address problems with pediatric studies of ME/CFS.''
Article here Thread here
Solve ME/CFS Initiative CEO Carol Head has written an excellent open letter to Forbes magazine to refute an ignorant article they published about ME claiming anti-PACE is anti-science.
Letter here Thread here
Submission to Scottish Parliament in support of the ME petition, by Professor
@Jonathan Edwards.
PDF here Thread here
The ME Show Episode 9.
@Gary Burgess interviews Chantelle Parry who set up an M.E. friendship group in Gloucestershire, as well as to Rachel Ephgrave who is one of more than 100 members of the group.
Video links here Thread here post #152
Centre for Welfare Reform (UK) Discussion paper: ''Reclaiming ‘Chronic Illness’ An introduction to the Chronic Illness Inclusion Project'' by Catherine Hale.
38 pages. From the summary: ''In this paper, I argue that, ‘chronic illness’ is a self-ascribed identity which implies both a distinctive form of impairment (in our case, bodily malfunction) and a shared experience of disability or disablism (social oppression).''
Article here Thread here
Book ''A Girl behind dark glasses'' by Jessica Taylor-Bearman is out this week. Jessica (
@jayletay) has had severe ME for many years, and featured in Unrest.
Female first article here Thread here
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Biomedical Research
Nature ''Insights into ME/CFS phenotypes through comprehensive metabolomics'' by Lipkin et al.
''We report biomarker discovery and topological analysis of plasma metabolomic, fecal bacterial metagenomic, and clinical data from 50 ME/CFS patients and 50 healthy controls.''
Article here Thread here
PLOS ONE ''Intracranial compliance is associated with symptoms of orthostatic intolerance in chronic fatigue syndrome'' by Finkelmeyer, Newton et al.
Paper here Thread here
Diagnostics ''Neural Indicators of Fatigue in Chronic Diseases: A Systematic Review of MRI Studies'' by Goni et al.
Concludes: ''Given the different designs, methodologies and variable results, we conclude that there are currently no well-defined brain indicators of fatigue in chronic diseases.''
Article here Thread here
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Biomedical researcher videos
OMF Short video of Dr Ron Davis talking about the new NIH funded 5 year study led by himself and Dr Mark Davis at Stanford University.
Video here Thread here
Advances in ME/CFS Research Video interview with Dr David Systrom of Boston who has found evidence of small-fiber polyneuropathy (SFPN) in ME and fibromyalgia, and is carrying out drug trials on Fibromyalgia patients.
Video here Thread here
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Other research
Journal of Bioethical Inquiry ''Are ME/CFS Patient Organizations “Militant”?''by Blease and Geraghty.
Describes the long history of scientific disagreement and the accusations of ''militant'' patient activism. The authors draw parallels with 1980's AIDS activism in the USA which involved both public activism and engagement with science.
Concludes: ''We find that widespread negative stereotyping of patients and the marginalization and exclusion of patient voices by medical authorities provides a better explanation for expressions of frustration among patients with ME/CFS.''
Paper here Thread here
Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior ''Latent class analysis of a heterogeneous international sample of patients with ME/CFS'' by Huber, Sunnquist & Jason.
Detailed questionnaire based study of over 1000 pwME found subtypes based on symptoms that they suggest may help focus future research and treatments.
Article here Thread here
Journal of Health Psychology ''Meta-analysis investigating post-exertional malaise between patients and controls'' by Brown and Jason.
Concludes that PEM should be considered a cardinal symptom of ME/CFS.
Article here Thread here
Journal of Health Science and Education ''The Importance of Screening for Suicide Risk in Chronic Invisible Illness'' by Cathy Pederson.
Describes the patient experience well. Recommends doctors believe the patient, properly treat physical symptoms and screen for suicidal thoughts and offer appropriate help.
Article here Thread here
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Quacks, charlatans and other dangerous creatures
Journal of Experiential Psychotherapy (not a serious scientific journal) ''Understanding the Lightning Process Approach to CFS/ME; a Review of the Disease Process and the Approach'' by Parker et al.
A sales pitch masquerading as science. Not a recommendation.
Article here Thread here
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PDF version here
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