I have been mulling over something which I noticed about the Caroline Richmond article on the 1989 Wessely et al paper, which was posted above, posted on Twitter on 11 August. It seems to be the case that there is no paper so poor that it cannot be worsened by journalists and journal editors. We saw this with the McE and B papers and the accompanying BMJ editorial, which passed hurriedly over the substance of the papers to dwell on the scurrilous. It was the Editorial that seemed to be emphasised by Freindly for the US market.
The Wessely paper was reported by Richmond in GP magazine and it is worth paying attention to the editorial contributions.
First there is the accompanying photograph, which Richmond disowned, of the jogger.
Then there is the question of editorial subheadings and their positioning.
"Tell patients it's time to pick up the pieces". These words do appear in the text, but the context is much more nuanced. The sub heading interrupts a paragraph to alter the emphasis of the paragraph and place undue emphasis on these words. That might, of course, have been done by someone who's overriding concern was symmetry and the aesthetics of the magazine. If so, he was in the wrong job.
"Gradually expose them to hard activity". I have looked for these words in the text of both the Wessely and Richmond papers, and I cannot see them. It may be my eyesight. This seems to be a figment of the editor's imagination.
One expects these tricks of the general newspapers, but not of professional journals. There must have been many GPs who saw only the headline and subheadings.
The Wessely paper was reported by Richmond in GP magazine and it is worth paying attention to the editorial contributions.
First there is the accompanying photograph, which Richmond disowned, of the jogger.
Then there is the question of editorial subheadings and their positioning.
"Tell patients it's time to pick up the pieces". These words do appear in the text, but the context is much more nuanced. The sub heading interrupts a paragraph to alter the emphasis of the paragraph and place undue emphasis on these words. That might, of course, have been done by someone who's overriding concern was symmetry and the aesthetics of the magazine. If so, he was in the wrong job.
"Gradually expose them to hard activity". I have looked for these words in the text of both the Wessely and Richmond papers, and I cannot see them. It may be my eyesight. This seems to be a figment of the editor's imagination.
One expects these tricks of the general newspapers, but not of professional journals. There must have been many GPs who saw only the headline and subheadings.