CFS fun

[WisNeuro]

Exclusive: Science journal to withdraw chronic fatigue review amid patient activist complaints | Reuters

Nice, we're letting patient complaints to trump empiricism when it comes to somatization.

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[cara susanna]

Ughhhhh.

Also:

Yet critics say this amounts to a suggestion that the syndrome is a mental disorder, or “all in the mind”. They campaign fiercely to block or discredit any research looking at psychological or behavioral treatments, arguing that they are physically, not psychologically, debilitated.

This shows a clear misunderstanding of the mind-body relationship. Furthermore, there are plenty of CBT based approaches for medical conditions that have physical causes but can still be exacerbated by psychological factors (such as irritable bowel syndrome). I hear this stuff all of the time about CBT for chronic pain and it just annoys me so much.

 

[PsyDr]

The fact that they are trying to block treatments, even if they work, probably has more significance than their complaints.

 

[futurehopefully]

I remember in another thread that someone recommended the book Galileo's Middle Finger (which I'm reading right now). I'm going to take a moment to recommend it again, since it's concerningly pertinent to this thread.

 

[Justanothergrad]

I'm sure medical treatments will resolve all issues now that they dismiss/deny the psychological root of some of them.

I think that's how science works, right?

 

[Fan_of_Meehl]

Ughhhhh.

Also:

This shows a clear misunderstanding of the mind-body relationship. Furthermore, there are plenty of CBT based approaches for medical conditions that have physical causes but can still be exacerbated by psychological factors (such as irritable bowel syndrome). I hear this stuff all of the time about CBT for chronic pain and it just annoys me so much.

Exactly.

And I've never conceived of a 'psychological' phenomenon (cognition, emotion, or behavior) that existed separate from a biological substrate (brain or body).

Hell, even cancer and heart disease have "physical and psychological elements." Don't they get that the same phenomenon can be evaluated at different *levels of analysis?*

 

[Justanothergrad]

Don't they

nope. lol

 

[psych.meout]

One of the worst parts of this is how the Cochrane editors were basically lying to the public about their reasoning for forcefully withdrawing the article.

“This not about patient pressure,” he added in a telephone interview. “This was a decision we reached with difficulty because we know the incredibly challenging environment this review sits in.”

Without this email, which I assume was provided by Larun or one of her co-authors, Cochrane would have gotten away with lying about it.

Tovey and Churchill said in their email to Larun that “in response to concerns raised by members of the CFS community” they are considering moving responsibility for research reviews on CFS/ME away from their mental health department into another section — possibly the “long-term conditions” section.

Categorizing CFS/ME under mental health disorders “has been antagonistic to some in the CFS community, potentially impacting on the confidence people have in our reviews”, they wrote.

 

[PsyDr]

Some context:

Cochrane had a huge internal fight about a month before this. Four of the board members left after there was a very public disagreement about relationships with pharma.

Totally unrelated to this.

 

[WisNeuro]

Some context:

Cochrane had a huge internal fight about a month before this. Four of the board members left after there was a very public disagreement about relationships with pharma.

Totally unrelated to this.

Definitely not surprised. The big pharma reviews, at least the ones that I am knowledgeable about, are biased towards industry, to say the least.