Copied post from the Solve ME News thread From a Solve email. Solve M.E. Partners with UCLA on ME/CFS Research on Brain Stimulation First time ME/CFS included in UCLA program We’re excited to announce that Solve M.E. has partnered with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Iris Cantor Women’s Health Center to expand ME/CFS research through their Annual Health Pilot Program—the first time an ME/CFS study has been included. Solve M.E. will support a study by the UCLA Neuromodulation Division on a promising investigational treatment. The partnership is generously supported by Karl Zeile, a Solve M.E. board member, and Dian Zeile. Fifteen female subjects will receive 20 sessions of Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS), a non-invasive brain stimulation technique with demonstrated efficacy for treatment of depression, pain, sleep, and cognitive symptoms which are common in patients with ME/CFS. The treatment will include stimulation to two sites in the brain that can help relieve these symptoms (the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and primary motor cortex). Changes in brain activity will be monitored with high-density electroencephalography which can help to improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying treatment of ME/CFS. “We anticipate that rTMS treatment will significantly improve many of the symptoms of ME/CFS. Positive results from this study will provide proof-of-concept evidence for a novel rTMS treatment approach for ME/CFS to be validated in a future double-blind, randomized control trial,” said Juliana Corlier, assistant project scientist and Andrew F. Leuchter, MD, Professor of Psychiatry. Solve M.E. Chief Scientific Officer Sadie Whittaker remarked, “We are thrilled that ME/CFS, a disease diagnosed four-fold more in women than in men, was included in the UCLA Iris Cantor Center Annual Health Pilot Program and could not be more excited about this project. We believe that this partnership with UCLA will help increase awareness of ME/CFS and open up conversations about how ME/CFS is diagnosed within UCLA Health.”
Why? If the treatment doesn't work, what are the implications? If it does, similar question: What inferences will be derived?
https://www.healthrising.org/blog/2021/04/22/chronic-fatigue-brain-stimulation-clinical-trial/ Novel Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Brain Stimulation Clinical Trial Begins
I agree with your query @duncan. It doesn't sound as though the trial will have a control arm and blinding. Which means any result won't really tell us much. Did SolveME choose this study?
Snow Leopard linked a presentation on the placebo response here: Viewpoint: “It’s All in Your Head”—Medicine’s Silent Epidemic TMS is often claimed to be useful for depression. But it may well just be a very effective placebo. Here's an image from that set of slides - it did no better than a good sham treatment and the benefit was not sustained.
