Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome do not score higher on the autism‐spectrum quotient than healthy controls, 2018, Bileviciute‐Ljungar et al

[Hutan]

@Samuel, I'm sure that book would be interesting to many people here. The comments on it suggest that lots of people found it helpful. Maybe you could post it in its own thread in the Lifestyle Management subforum as well?

 

[JaimeS]

I do not suppose, I am almost permanently confused and bewildered by the actions of both others and myself, so I'm not in a position to suppose anything.

You gave me my first really good laugh of the day, @Wonko!

maximal tinfoil might suggest that if you can link two disease populations in order to make the less-attackable one more attackable by association, then you do it. if you cannot, then you say they are not connected.

Yeowch.

one pwme wrote a book of interviews [n=20] and observations, which is nominally about smart pw-neuroimmune-disease, but covers a lot of ground. she suggested these research questions:

"
* What percentage of neuroimmune patients showed autism spectrum or prodigy traits as children or had precocious ability in math, languages, or music? What percentage of patients exhibited hyperlexia?
* What is the overlap or relationship, if any, of adult neuroimmune diseases and autism spectrum disorders?

Sounds very interesting, actually.

 

[Woolie]

To give some context, here's another study by the same author:

Differences in alexithymia and emotional awareness in exhaustion syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome

Lovely example, of not letting the facts get in the way of a good story. The results of this study didn't even find a reliable difference in Toronto Alexithymia Scale scores between CFS pts and healthy controls.

Which is pretty surprising, actually, since the questionnare is loaded to generate higher scores in ill people:
" I have physical sensations that even Doctors don’t understand."
" I am often puzzled by sensations in my body"

Honestly, do these kinds of researchers have any interest in actual science at all? That is, actually collecting data to learn new things, things they don't already know? Or are they only interested in data when it can be used to support their preconceived beliefs?

 

[Snow Leopard]

I thought the ME - ASD connection was that when toddlers get hit with whatever causes ME (eg enterovirus), it manifests as ASD, and that because the toddler is still growing, it also affects their development reflected in somewhat impaired social / emotional connection.

There is basically no evidence for that hypothesis. There is no evidence for a genuine ME-ASD connection in the published literature.