BMJ’s “Commissioned” Propaganda Piece Hijacked Death of Maeve Boothby O’Neill; Boothby O’Neill’s Mum Responds| trialbyerror.org
This is a crowdfunding month for UC Berkeley and Trial By Error. If you’d like to support my work, here’s the link. (Donations are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.) The journal Child Abuse & Neglect recently published a paper called “Characteristics of 86 families and 142 children diagnosed with Pediatric Condition Falsification in the Netherlands.” The […]| Trial By Error
(Donations are tax-deductible for US taxpayers.) In late August, I sent a letter to eClinicalMedicine, a Lancet journal, about an egregiously flawed paper called “Effects of therapeutic interventions on long COVID: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” The study was a mess. It concluded, with “high-certainty evidence,” that exercise training was effective and “should be […]| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
My Letter to Cochrane’s Chief Executive Officer| trialbyerror.org
The other day, I posted yet another blog about Cochrane’s deeply flawed 2019 review of exercise therapy for what it called chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and the organization’s decision last December to abandon a planned update. Specifically, I was commenting on a response from the review’s lead author, Lillebeth Larun, to a comment from the […]| Trial By Error
Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine, is a leading investigator into long Covid. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018, the National Academy of Medicine in 2019, to and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021. She was one of the four scientific organizers […]| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
On Monday afternoon, a bunch of people in Terminal 4 at Heathrow, London’s biggest airport, reported feeling ill. The reports led to concerns about a possible toxic exposure, which triggered an evacuation and major flight delays. An initial search for dangerous substances found nothing. On Tuesday, The Guardian ran an article under the following headline: […]| Trial By Error
Last week, a research team from Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity published a paper called “Heightened innate immunity may trigger chronic inflammation, fatigue and post-exertional malaise in ME/CFS,” in the journal npj Metabolic Health and Disease. The senior investigator, Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, is director of the center and a professor of epidemiology […]| Trial By Error
In a new paper, a team of investigators from the University of South Australia in Adelaide, Australia, describes a “pilot feasibility” trial for an ME/CFS intervention focused on physical activity. The trial fell dramatically short on recruitment efforts—a failure that the investigators appear to explicitly blame on the patient community rather than any possible shortcomings […]| Trial By Error
A reader from Belgium sent me the following (satirical) paper she’d written for the “Journal of Entrenched Paradigms.” I found it entertaining, well-written, and on-target, and figured others would as well. It offers a sharp assessment of some of the favorite methodological strategies of members of the CBT/GET ideological brigades. I am posting it here […]| Trial By Error
Two years ago, Beth Mazur, who co-founded #MEAction and spent years advocating for better care and more research, committed suicide during a stay with her close friend and fellow person with ME, Julie Rehmeyer. It is hard to imagine what feels unimaginable—the shock and pain of finding the body of someone you love in their […]| Trial By Error
A journal under the Lancet umbrella, eClinicalMedicine, recently published a study from China called “Effects of therapeutic interventions on long COVID: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.” (I wrote about it here.) The authors themselves determined that most of the research they included was, to be charitable, on the crappy side. Nonetheless, they claimed “high-certainty […]| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
More on the BMJ Opinion Piece from the Psychobabblers| trialbyerror.org
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
Null Results in Physiotherapy Trial for Functional Motor Disorder| trialbyerror.org
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
Sander Zurhake is an investigative reporter for Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS), a major Dutch broadcasting organization. On May 30th, NOS released television, radio and online reports about the potential harms of psycho-behavioral treatments for children with ME/CFS. In particular, the stories focused on the kind of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT, although rendered CGT in Dutch) offered to these patients, which also involves encouraging them to gradually increase their activity levels.| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
It’s been five years, more or less, since the start of the coronavirus pandemic–and the subsequent wave of Long Covid. I spoke earlier today with Jaime Seltzer, #MEAction’s scientific director, about how early links were forged between advocates for people with ME and those experiencing what became known as Long Covid, what we’ve learned since, and where things are now. Seltzer was included on Time magazine’s list of the 100 “most influential people in health in 2024.”| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
Yesterday, in Sydney, I gave a presentation at the Kirby Institute, a renowned research center at the University of New South Wales, along with my friend and colleague Dr David Joffe, a respiratory medicine specialist. David spoke about the pathophysiology of Long Covid as well as the enormous economic burden of the disease. I spoke about the problems with the clinical trials of psycho-behavioral interventions—specifically, the infamous PACE trial for ME/CFS and the recent REGAIN trial for ...| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
Nicola Baker| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error
By David Tuller, DrPH| Trial By Error