Dr David Tuller: My Letter to MP Monaghan about BMJ Studies

[Countrygirl]

http://www.virology.ws/2018/06/05/trial-by-error-my-letter-to-mp-monaghan-about-bmj-studies/

Trial By Error: My Letter to MP Monaghan About BMJ Studies
5 JUNE 2018
By David Tuller, DrPH

I have been trying to convince editors at two BMJ journals to take responsibility for poor decisions. Despite serious nudging and prodding, I have been unsuccessful. The two papers I have criticized as being fraught with methodological and/or ethical missteps are these: “Clinical and cost-effectiveness of the Lightning Process in addition to specialist medical care for paediatric chronic fatigue syndrome: randomised controlled trial,” published last year in Archives of Disease in Childhood; and “Unidentified Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a major cause of school absence: surveillance outcomes from school-based clinics,” published in 2011 in BMJ Open.

These papers both involved research with children. They both have the potential to impact public policy and medical treatment. So getting the issues aired publicly and then adequately addressed is of some importance—at least to me. BMJ does not appear to share that sense of urgency.