Persistent fatigue induced by interferon-alpha: A novel, inflammation-based, proxy model of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, 2018, Pariante et al

SallyC said:
They have appointed themselves arbiters of good science,
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This is excellent cover when a group want to slide some dodgy stuff through unremarked. Set the organisation up as denouncers of all poor science. Throw accusations at “unsound” research. Establish aname. Then if they, and other “independent” organisations, declare a certain type of research “sound”, they will be believed. After all they were right about all that other stuff. ??
 
SallyC said:
And I am also a bit fascinated by the number of 'experts' who SMC state volunteer their time sometimes at very short notice and out of hours. There's got to be some quid pro quo to it surely, (I don't mean monetary), unless it's just the chance of getting your name in the paper.
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I think they all know the value of being helpful to the SMC when it comes to promoting their own work. I imagine Carmine Pariante may have volunteered his time at short notice once or twice. It seems to work a bit like the Masons. Does anyone know if they have a secret handshake?
 
Robert 1973 said:
I think they all know the value of being helpful to the SMC when it comes to promoting their own work. I imagine Carmine Pariante may have volunteered his time at short notice once or twice. It seems to work a bit like the Masons. Does anyone know if they have a secret handshake?
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You scratch my back i’ll scratch yours. I can’t remember who mentioned David Attenborough’s dynasties séries but the one about Chimps comes to mind.
 
Lucibee said:
Good summary from MEAction: - Post-interferon fatigue study - a mixed bag
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It is a good summary.

I'm waiting for the paper in 18 months' time from Chalder, Pariante, Russell et al showing how they helped this fatigue using CBT/GET (moderate, subjective, temporary improvement, of course). In the ensuing media coverage orchestrated by the SMC, Sharpe will say all along that psychology and physiology are the same thing and that they'd always said ME was a real illness but that the best hope of treating it was CBT/GET but of course more research is needed. Vindication.
 
Andy said:
Given that the Science Media Centre, a charity whose charity listing, http://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?subid=0&regid=1140827, claims that it's purpose is to (sorry, all caps is how it is on the website)

could a complaint be raised, highlighting the inaccuracies of the media coverage inspired by their briefing? And if we could ever get a copy of the briefing itself, to fact check that, would be great, and would make any complaint made even more accurate.
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I think it's too much of a judgment call for the Commission. I think it's the political route we need to go down for the SMC.
 
Lucibee said:
Good summary from MEAction: - Post-interferon fatigue study - a mixed bag
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I agree it is a good summing up of the study and some of the good and bad points about it.

A couple of questions, @JaimeS.
33% of a 55-person sample with Hep C infection and IFN-α treatment were found to be fatigued 6-mo post-treatment, where fatigue was measured using the Chalder fatigue scale, and increased fatigue was defined as a lower value on that scale
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Increased fatigue gives a higher CFQ score.

Finally, while the measurements are objective,
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CFQ is subjective (and rubbish), and is a major part of the analysis and argument made by the researchers, so I'm not sure this statement makes sense.

I note you also don't comment on the feebleness of the p values used to justify some of their arguments, and the fact that they seem to have cherry picked which results to include.
 
JohnTheJack said:
I'm waiting for the paper in 18 months' time from Chalder, Pariante, Russell et al showing how they helped this fatigue using CBT/GET (moderate, subjective, temporary improvement, of course). In the ensuing media coverage orchestrated by the SMC, Sharpe will say all along that psychology and physiology are the same thing and that they'd always said ME was a real illness but that the best hope of treating it was CBT/GET but of course more research is needed. Vindication.
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yeah, this sounds ridiculous but of course is a real concern. The motives of the GET/CBT ideological brigades and their enablers at the SMC are unclear. Are they going to find a way to prescribe GET/CBT for this dysfunction or are they doing this because they recognize where things are going and they just need to claim ownership of some corner of biomedical research into the illness?
 
JohnTheJack said:
It is a good summary.

I'm waiting for the paper in 18 months' time from Chalder, Pariante, Russell et al showing how they helped this fatigue using CBT/GET (moderate, subjective, temporary improvement, of course). In the ensuing media coverage orchestrated by the SMC, Sharpe will say all along that psychology and physiology are the same thing and that they'd always said ME was a real illness but that the best hope of treating it was CBT/GET but of course more research is needed. Vindication.
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I would have bet that a few months ago, but given how discredited the PACE trial is, I'm not sure it is tenable, and even they are starting to realise it. But at the same time, they've shot themselves in the foot so often, so they may try...
 
dave30th said:
yeah, this sounds ridiculous but of course is a real concern. The motives of the GET/CBT ideological brigades and their enablers at the SMC are unclear. Are they going to find a way to prescribe GET/CBT for this dysfunction or are they doing this because they recognize where things are going and they just need to claim ownership of some corner of biomedical research into the illness?
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Have you seen the news about Karl Morten? He has found a lot of abnormalities and has just put in a £1.6 million bid to the MRC to expand that work.

He says the metabolic abnormalities in patients don't improve with GET.

What might be happening now is that the CBT/GET people are panicking and trying to preserve some space and funding for biopsychosocial approaches for vague fatiguing conditions. The Pariante paper is compatible with the CBT/GET model where the perpetuating factors are psychological.
 
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Trish said:
The thing I find most astonishing about this whole episode is the power of the Science Media Centre to dictate news coverage. I've been collating the news articles so far, planning to list them in the News in Brief this week, but there are too many, so I'm putting them here instead:
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German articles: https://www.spektrum.de/news/chronische-erschoepfung-durch-immunreaktion/1614796 popular science magazine https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/chronische-erschoepfung-krank-durch-hyperaktives-immunsystem public radio station
 
 
"“If the thing is triggered by an abnormal or excessive immune response, if we could find a way to reduce that immune response, we might stop incident cases.” Prof. Michael Sharpe.https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/17/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-could-be-triggered-by-overactive-immune-system?CMP=share_btn_tw …
via @Guardian #MECFS #ImmuneSystem #Inflammation #Pariante #CFSModel"

and CBT and exercise will be the way to reduce the immune response, with carefully designed trials to get the right result.
 
“If the thing is triggered by an abnormal or excessive immune response, if we could find a way to reduce that immune response, we might stop incident cases.” Prof. Michael Sharpe.
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CBT to reduce stress?



Carmine M. Pariante @ParianteSPILab


Of course the words in this tweet ARE NOT MINE! @TheSun created this title for the article we wrote to report our study, as we would have never used these words!
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So why retweet?
 
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