PACE trial commentary in JHP from Dr Charles Shepherd, ME Association

[charles shepherd]

I have been informed that someone has written to Dr Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, and included this commentary.

Dr Horton has replied……let's hope he soon gets a new iphone!

Dear Dr. Horton,

I read your excellent article, “Science and the defeat of fear”, published in the LANCET on the 8th April, 2017. I found myself (passionately) agreeing with every word. Thank you. I really do believe that as a society, if we do not embrace the core points that you raised, then the future will indeed be rather bleak.

With this in mind, please would you consider again, retracting the PACE Trial paper on CFS/ME.

I am confident that you are probably fully aware of the issues surrounding this trial.

However, please could I draw your attention to the article published just today, ‘It’s time for an independent review of the PACE Trial methods and results’ | Dr Charles Shepherd, Journal of Health Psychology | 10 April 2017”.
http://www.meassociation.org.uk/.../its-time-for-an.../...

Within it there are several links which are also of particular interest.

Thanking you for your time and due consideration … etc


This was the response I got almost immediately:

Thank you for your message.
My iphone has died unexpectedly.
I am currently travelling, and so I will not be able to reply to your message as quickly as I would have wished.
Please be patient.
As soon as I have a new iphone, normal service will be resumed.
Don't let anyone ever tell you that technology is a solution for health. Technology fails.

Travel safely,
Richard

 

[AndyPR]

Don't let anyone ever tell you that technology is a solution for health. Technology fails.

As does peer review apparently..

 

[Esther12]

I have been informed that someone has written to Dr Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, and included this commentary.

Is there a possible reason to not put that on the public internet? Don't know.

 

[TiredSam]

This was the response I got almost immediately:

Thank you for your message.
My iphone has died unexpectedly.
I am currently travelling, and so I will not be able to reply to your message as quickly as I would have wished.
Please be patient.
As soon as I have a new iphone, normal service will be resumed.
Don't let anyone ever tell you that technology is a solution for health. Technology fails.

Travel safely,
Richard

That looks suspiciously like a Wessely-style bluff matey aw shucks self-depracating shrug to me, maybe they take tips from each other.

Whilst everyone was commenting on their favourite bits of the recent @Jonathan Edwards article, no-one mentioned my favourite bit - the use of the phrase "laying it on with a trowel". This was Disraeli's expression when describing how much flattery it was appropriate to use when dealing with Queen Victoria.

Nice to see someone laying it on with a trowel with Dr Horton, it's worth a try. Maybe he'll be amused enough to give a meaningful response at some point.

 

[Snow Leopard]

The broken iphone thing sounds like a good way to ignore emails in perpetuity.

 

[Barry53]

I have trouble understanding why a competent statistician would allow such obvious flaws in the handling of the basic stats to be let through.

Maybe the statistician was carefully chosen?

 

[arewenearlythereyet]

The broken iphone thing sounds like a good way to ignore emails in perpetuity.

Perhaps he needs to amend his signature to include the possibility of a broken iPhone at anytime ?

 

[Barry53]

The idea that you can just ask a few questions and then add up the scores and treat it as a scale is so wrong

Depends what your definition of "right" is. If "right" is deemed to be whatever gives you the answer you are hoping for, the the logic - albeit twisted - drops into place.

 

[Barry53]

This was the response I got almost immediately:

Thank you for your message.
My iphone has died unexpectedly.
I am currently travelling, and so I will not be able to reply to your message as quickly as I would have wished.
Please be patient.
As soon as I have a new iphone, normal service will be resumed.
Don't let anyone ever tell you that technology is a solution for health. Technology fails.

Travel safely,
Richard

Clever little broken iPhone. Not convinced the failure was technical.

 

[Tyto alba]

It would seem he's been 'travelling' for quite some time now...

From ME Action Feb 2016:

Dr. Horton’s office had told the original signatories — Drs. Ronald Davis, Jonathan Edwards, Leonard Jason, Bruce Levin, Vincent Racaniello and Arthur Reingold — that he would respond to the letter when he returned from travelling. But, Dr. Racaniello now says, Dr. Horton had “remained silent”.

 

[TiredSam]

 

[A.B.]

Don't let anyone ever tell you that technology is a solution for health. Technology fails.

Dropping hints that the solution to some health problems isn't physical?

 

[charles shepherd]

The big question is what to do next if The Lancet (and the other medical journals who have published PACE trial results) continue to maintain that there is nothing wrong with either the study design of the PACE trial, or the results that were obtained and published

Wilshire et al have re-analysed the data on recovery and their results have been published:

http://www.meassociation.org.uk/201...-the-pace-trial-recovery-paper-22-march-2017/

where they stated:

We conclude that the Recovery paper reported inflated and misleading estimates of
recovery rates in the PACE trial. There is no evidence from this trial that individuals
can recover from CFS as a result of these treatments. Patients and their clinicians should
be made aware of this information when considering whether to enrol in such
programmes.

Over 100 clinicians and academics have signed a joint letter to the editor of Psychological Medicine calling for the retraction of the paper on recovery:

http://www.meassociation.org.uk/201...tion-centre-for-welfare-reform-13-march-2017/

And we now have a number of very critical commentaries from clinicians and academics being published in the Journal of Health Psychology:

http://www.meassociation.org.uk/201...-open-access-thanks-to-the-mea-29-march-2017/

But the journals involved just continue to dismiss these concerns..........

CS

 

[charles shepherd]

It would seem he's been 'travelling' for quite some time now...

From ME Action Feb 2016:

I think Dr Horton is a well travelled doctor - he always seems to be 'on the move'….

 

[Sean]

Don't let anyone ever tell you that technology is a solution for health. Technology fails.

Technology, in the broad sense, includes quality control. Like, for example, peer review.

 

[Snowdrop]

Yes... Perhaps there is a difference in perspective between those of us who did 100+ experiments during our science undergrad and those who clearly did not... What you think you are measuring isn't always what you are actually measuring. A questionnaire that measures quality of life, or pain or whatever is not quality of life or pain itself.

While I have no science knowledge your comment very much reminds me of reflecting on being a parent and raising children. What you think you're teaching them isn't always aligned with what it is they are learning in that moment.

When you become so focussed on your message (hypothesis) you miss what else is going on in that moment too.

 

[Large Donner]

It would seem he's been 'travelling' for quite some time now...

From ME Action Feb 2016:
Dr. Horton’s office had told the original signatories — Drs. Ronald Davis, Jonathan Edwards, Leonard Jason, Bruce Levin, Vincent Racaniello and Arthur Reingold — that he would respond to the letter when he returned from travelling. But, Dr. Racaniello now says, Dr. Horton had “remained silent”.

To be fair he did have a broken pen back then.

 

[slysaint]

@L.A. Cooper following previous plea that #MM include a Retract PACE message in the protests; please read this thread.

 

[daisybell]

It's amazing how he manages to do any editing of the journal when he's traveling so much....
oh, wait.........

 

[Barry53]

The big question is what to do next ...

That is a really good question, worthy of some thought.