Trial By Error: CBT and Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Trial By Error: My Letter to One of Mahana’s Gastroenterology Advisors

http://www.virology.ws/2020/02/05/t...-to-one-of-mahanas-gastroenterology-advisors/

5 February 2020

By David Tuller, DrPH

On its website, Mahana Therapeutics has listed sixteen gastroenterology and psychology advisors from prominent academic and medical institutions. Companies often add such names to their rosters as a way of signaling their significance and their access to great minds. Sometimes these people are compensated; sometimes not. In many instances, these advisors play little role in day-to-day company activities.

In the case of Mahana, that means those advisors not directly involved in the development of the web-based cognitive behavior therapy program for treating irritable bowel syndrome might have little knowledge or awareness of the details of the matter. However, that doesn’t mean they have no responsibility to express their thoughts on the company’s promotional strategy–especially because Mahana itself has so far failed to respond to my questions…

 

@dave30th , a couple of typos.

A rogue "u" in "already".

I don't think "of" should be there.

 

@Andy, thanks! I will mark them [sic] since they were in the letter as sent!

 

Indeed it does appear that IAPT is targeting IBD, Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, with iCBT.
https://twitter.com/user/status/1222572177632976896


And it appears to be the same exact same tripe: 'It's about willpower in the end. You've got to keep going': a qualitative study exploring the experience of pain in inflammatory bowel disease.

 

I'm having a moment of CBT-induced diarrhea...back in a moment or so.

 

Who makes up the names? After Windgassen, we get KLou. I think a study on nominative determinism is needed.

 

Windgassen seems an unfortunate name for anyone who wants to be taken seriously. Especially if they are in the business of bowel trouble. And they specialise in hot air.

 

I suppose you might want to deliver CBT at a bit of a distance if there is bowel trouble about.
Maybe that's why they have invented this.
The Monty Python script writers would have died for this stuff.

 

With regards to Moss-Moriss and the rest of the cabal:

If facts were scenery CBT is a bullet train straight to the destination. No need to complicate things. Everything en route to destination is irrelevant. Any contrary thing is just an obstacle to overcome (they have right the strong mental attitude so they use it).

One imagines they no doubt perceive themselves as hard working and relevant. What seems more likely to me is that they are very busy people juggling lots of things in their full lives. Not the same thing as relevant. And being hard-working in the sense of very busy is not the same as doing the hard work that requires the correct skills, tools and learning, patience and a willingness to exert one's mind beyond the comfortable confines of one's preconceptions. They seem to have mastered persistence even as they make haste directly to the wrong station.

Also, testing how to disprove one's theories (as MS has pointed out on twitter apparently--intelligent people doubt). So you'd expect that to apply to their theories.

From everything I've read from this lot hard working in the second sense is not their strong suit.

But they are likely very busy.

 

Thanks for the humour.

Great bird image - is it an albatross (which one)?

 

It may be worse than that in this case. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases are not MUS by any definition. So now they are projecting catastrophization or whatever bogus ideas on top of diseases in which pain may well signal an urgent problem. It would be a tad irresponsible if they were to, perhaps, discourage people from utilizing healthcare resources for symptoms which may indicate critical intestinal damage.

 

A blog from James Coyne in 2016
No, irritable bowel syndrome is not all in your head.

https://www.coyneoftherealm.com/2016/05/21/no-irritable-bowel-syndrome-is-not-all-in-your-head/

 

Trial by Error: My Follow-Up Letter to Professor Rona Moss-Morris

Ten days ago, I sent a letter to Professor Rona Moss-Morris of King’s College London, seeking information about the licensing deal involving her web-based program of cognitive behavior therapy to treat irritable bowel syndrome. Since I have not heard back, this morning I made a second attempt to reach out to her and obtain some answers to my questions.

http://www.virology.ws/2020/02/10/t...QkloVuvTetgDQxbHEYfdxFYdnCBzYrb3bwU3XM4K_aBJ8

 

Not surprising she has not answered. What answer can she give? She must know by now that non-sequiturs are not going to help her bluff through as a legitimate answer to valid questions.

 

Trial By Error: My letter to Mahana's CEO and CO-founder

Venture capitalist Robert Paull is listed on the Mahana Therapeutics website as the company’s co-founder and CEO. I have no idea how he got involved with this group of UK researchers and King’s College London. Given my own experiences, I would certainly have advised him against getting in bed with them, had he asked me–which he didn’t.

As it is, Mr Paull’s company has now licensed a product that generates minimal and transient reported benefits in reducing symptom severity in irritable bowel syndrome–yet is promoting the product based on its purported success in long-term reduction of symptom severity. I pointed out this dilemma in the letter I sent Mr Paull earlier today.