Predictors of Response to Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Body Dysmorphic Disorder (2019) Greenberg et al

I still have a hard time accepting that there are people out there who think this is serious research. This is a cult, not science. Alchemy was seriously more rigorous than this.

The words sound smart but they mean nothing. Just an endless circle jerk over the color of the emperor's naked ass sequins.

 

How would that look like?

Are you ready to change?

The treatment is fantastically effective.

Prepare to live a new life free of illness.

All you need is put in good effort and we guarantee it will work.

They seem to be in the process of discovering faith healing.

 

I wonder if the use of questionnaire results as both outcome and predictor should be disallowed. It seems rather... squishy, if that's the word.

 

Yes. But what do you do in a world characterized by subjective symptoms, more or less, so far?

I've seen subjective symptoms marginalized and ridiculed, and it's difficult.

The answer may rest in the wording of the questionnaire.

 

@duncan

I agree that subjective outcomes are crucially important in chronic illness. I think I'd say make sure that of the links that make up your analysis, only one can be made up of only subjective measures. More than that and you have a leap of faith and probably some incestuous interplay between each set of questions, it seems to me.

Just a thought. Who knows. I'll let it roll around.

 

It is what it is.

Can we revisit in 10 years?

 

Even worse is that the "treatments" aim to influence the very same things that are "measured" (not really sure measure applies when it's qualitative). It's a method for maximal bias. This is how not to science 101.