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Professor Martin Pall's Response to Wessely et al, J Roy Soc Med paper

peggy-sue

Senior Member
Messages
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Location
Scotland
:devil:
Q.So what do you get if you do a meta-analysis of several meta-analyses of data obtained from just 2 studies?

A. The Weasely School of Recursive Citations.

(Edited to add the bit about recursve citations. I'm slower than I thought I was.:oops: )
 
Messages
3
The tenet of the Wessley paper is that people with MCS symptoms are acting to escape from society, hermit-like.
While I know some who have done this, these are in the minority. Equally I know of many hermits who went to live on their own or in small communes for reasons other than anything to do with chemicals.

The majority of patients are ever vigilant of situations and chemicals in foods or in the air which may make them feel worse. To avoid these situations seems perfectly logical to me and indeed a very good adaptive strategy. They may not always be right in their attribution of symptoms but often they are. Avoidance of exposure to pesticides, various organophosphates, turpenes, various petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals seems perfectly healthy, wise and adaptive to me. It is also understandable why many seem to become paranoid. It is getting harder to trust governmental agencies and suppliers/manufacturers because they do not have the data but express their ignorance as safety. In addition too many health authorities are listening to these psychogenic arguments and using them as reasons to avoid appropriate supportive action. I am pleased to see that South Australian health authorities and hospitals are taking positive action.

Too many medical practitioners are far too quick to dismiss MCS and when they do they make matters worse. Often they fear that if they regard it as a symptom of an underlying illness (such as ME/CFS or Fibromyalgia or Systemic Lupus Erythematosis or even Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinsons disease) they will be reinforcing faulty beliefs. Such amateur psychology!