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2018 is on track for a Record number of MECFS papers published.

Murph

:)
Messages
1,799
Over at PubMed, they show you how many papers have been published each year on each topic.

Screen Shot 2018-03-30 at 12.47.53 PM.png

From just one published paper in 1979, publications for the keyword me/cfs shot up during the eighties.

In 1990, 98 papers were published. in 1991 it was 228.

Then we had a plateau. The year 2000 saw 222 papers published.

2015 was the latest peak and holds the all time record, at 404 papers. But we've seen 103 papers published so far this year, on what is the last day of the first quarter of the year. If that rate continues, we should hit 412 papers published in 2018.

And I'm hopeful there will be more, since funding was starting to flow last year, and we know the Norwegians should have at least two papers to come out soon, (on Rituximab and cyclophosphamide). Plus Stanford should have some results hitting the journals at some stage too.

There has been a bit of a lull recently in really groundbreaking papers, but I am sure that won't last long!
 

Dolphin

Senior Member
Messages
17,567
It seems possible to me that one factor may bias results a little: an expectation on researchers in recent years to have their papers listed on PubMed from for example the NIH and also the facility to do so. Leonard Jason for example publishes in some non-PubMed listed journals but he ends up with entries on PubMed.

e.g.

Fatigue. 2017;5(2):89-102. doi: 10.1080/21641846.2017.1299077. Epub 2017 Mar 6.
Clinical Criteria Versus a Possible Research Case Definition in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
Jason LA1, McManimen S1, Sunnquist M1, Newton JL2, Strand EB3.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29062593

I have no idea how big a factor this might be.
 
Last edited:

Murph

:)
Messages
1,799
Intriguing update:

the number of MECFS articles published this quarter is 109! I assumed nothing would hit PubMed on good Friday but hey, those godless science types! ;) Anyway, we're now on track for an annual number of 436.

furthermore, what's interesting is that all the stuff that hit the presses yesterday was related to Graded exercise Therapy, so, as pointed out above, they relate to the old-school models of MECFS.

HOWEVER!

Several of the pieces were correspondence published by the Lancet, arguing that the GETSET trial was a load of hokum. So some of the uptick we're seeing is actually the backlash against BPS...
 

pattismith

Senior Member
Messages
3,930
However, the number of papers does not always reflect the quality and the appeal of the studies...

Here what we find in 2018 for Fibromyalgia:


-Does Meditation Alleviate Anxiety and Physiological Symptoms Related to Fibromyalgia?
-Randomized, blinded, controlled trial on effectiveness of photobiomodulation therapy and exercise training in the fibromyalgia treatment
-Determinants of representational and behavioral hyperactivity in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome
-The relationship between sleep disturbance, stress, catastrophizing, and chronic pain in fibromyalgia patients

-The relationship between mindfulness, catastrophizing, and chronic pain in fibromyalgia patients
Posterior cingulate cortex is a key neural substrate for pain catastrophizing in fibromyalgia
Efficacy of the Group Music and Imagery method (GrpMI) for women suffering from fibromyalgia: A randomized controlled trial

-etc, etc
 

Cort

Phoenix Rising Founder
However, the number of papers does not always reflect the quality and the appeal of the studies...

Here what we find in 2018 for Fibromyalgia:


-Does Meditation Alleviate Anxiety and Physiological Symptoms Related to Fibromyalgia?
-Randomized, blinded, controlled trial on effectiveness of photobiomodulation therapy and exercise training in the fibromyalgia treatment
-Determinants of representational and behavioral hyperactivity in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome
-The relationship between sleep disturbance, stress, catastrophizing, and chronic pain in fibromyalgia patients

-The relationship between mindfulness, catastrophizing, and chronic pain in fibromyalgia patients
Posterior cingulate cortex is a key neural substrate for pain catastrophizing in fibromyalgia
Efficacy of the Group Music and Imagery method (GrpMI) for women suffering from fibromyalgia: A randomized controlled trial

-etc, etc
Well said....It's good to look at the graph - thanks Murph for highlighting that.

When I did an analysis of ME/CFS papers some years ago I found a good number of what I considered to be dicey ones that didn't have a prayer of convincing anyone, quite a few reviews and commentaries, quite a few CBT/GET studies - and an appalling small number of strong investigative studies into the pathophysiology of ME.CFS.

I imagine that's changing to some degree. It would be really interesting to break the papers out into those categories again.