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What Psychological Topics Need to Be Researched?

Alvin2

The good news is patients don't die the bad news..
Messages
2,997
Yes. There are some exceptions though. I have a high regard for Lenny Jason and good regard for Ellie Stein.

Jason is a social psychologist. That is precisely the are we need investigated.
I don't know of who you speak but i agree that psychology is a rational field of research, but its been used to justify harming many people and it insists on defending many ridiculous beliefs of the profession.
I would like to see it cleaned up and move forward based on facts and reality
 

RogerBlack

Senior Member
Messages
902
I wholly disagree that psych research is never useful.
I agree that almost without exception, in the CFS field it has never been useful and has been actively harmful, and the risk of either misrepresentation by the researchers or hijacking later makes useful research even harder to conceive of.

Having said that.
I have problems managing my activity level, and often do too much. Effective coping techniques to help with activity managment, and explaining to others may have reduced my severity at the moment from not bedbound to able to work part time.

A large part of this is solidly in the psych realm - this is not about how to determine proper regimens, but how to stick to them, perhaps in the face of confusion, and peer (or other social) pressure.

'put it all into drugs' - it should be noted that there are no clear druggable targets, and if it turns out there is no effective medication for all PWME, this is likely to be a 20 year delay even if a druggable target is found.
(It is possible a treatment regimen may be found that benefits everyone with rituximab, or cream-cakes, or whatever, in which case the delay may be considerably less)

Such research - even if it is optimal from the other perspectives, if it is spun as 'to cope with GET' or 'to manage exercise so you can get fitter' is actively unhelpful.
 
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GreyOwl

Dx: strong belief system, avoidance, hypervigilant
Messages
266
  1. What proportion of psychological BPS researchers derive income from consultancy to insurance companies or government welfare providers? If this number is statistically significant, does this represent a conflict of interest? Should this potential conflict of interest be better reported? Should we develop a scale, much like the Chalder Fatigue Scale, to quantify a BPS proponent's potential conflict of interest? Would this information be useful to predict the likelihood of a BPS proponent's beliefs in pseudoscience?
  2. Why do psychological explanations of illness ignore medical science? That neuro-immunity exists is proven by the existence of receptor antibodies in multiple diseases. What are the factors that lead BPS proponents to ignore medical tests, or to advise against them? (This could be a very interesting avenue of investigation as we could look at the IQ of the particular advocates to see whether they have difficulty with numeracy. Also would be interesting to look at lifestyle factors here, particularly to score on deviancy, to see whether the advocates are pre-disposed to sociopathy or psychopathy, eg. Shorter).
 

Sean

Senior Member
Messages
7,378
What Psychological Topics Need to Be Researched?

The psychological profile of researchers and clinicians who persistently break just about every rule in the technical and ethical handbooks in order to build their empires, and how to stop them getting into the profession in the first place.
 
Messages
2,158
hi @sparklehoof .

Your questions at the start of this thread have provoked an interesting and useful discussion. I would be interested to know why you asked the question in the first place.

Are you a psychological researcher looking to find a topic to research of use to the ME community perhaps? That would be a perfectly valid reason for asking, but more explanation would enable us to be more helpful to you if that is your reason. Or are you an ME sufferer equally frustrated with the poor quality research dumped on us and wondering whether useful research is possible.

I personally agree with many others that too much money has already been wasted on poor quality psychological research which has led to false conclusions, incorrect interpretation of weak correlations and exaggeration of slight variations in outcomes to make claims of significance.

As a result we are accused of all sorts of things from symptom focusing, not wanting to get better, false illness beliefs, fear of exercise, etc. And parents have been accused of making their children sicker. Short term fluctuations in subjective outcomes following psychotherapies have been interpreted as cures etc.

Why, in that environment, would we trust the psychological and psychiatric professions to carry out useful research and interpret it correctly?

Do enlighten us more about what you wanted to find out from this thread.

Edit to add: I am corrected by Wonko in the following post. I apologise for not checking your profile before asking about your reasons for posting. I hope I did not offend you by seeming to question your motives.
 
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Snow Leopard

Hibernating
Messages
5,902
Location
South Australia
I agree with the others, that the focus should not be purely psychological, but rather consider the social factors.

Longitudinal prospective population based studies of sufficient sample size (eg follow a group of 100,000 people!) to look at the social and psychological difficulties that people with ME & CFS face after becoming ill and the timeframes involved. Particularly focusing on quality of life and the loss of meeting of human needs that results from chronic illness (eg loss of careers, relationships etc).

This will provide evidence of directionality that will confirm or debunk all of the junk retrospective questionnaire studies typical of trying to measure psychological correlates in CFS patients.

This can be combined with biological studies to find mechanisms of disease...
 

ScottTriGuy

Stop the harm. Start the research and treatment.
Messages
1,402
Location
Toronto, Canada
After sufficient funding for bio causes and cures for ME, I could see funding go to treatment of iatrogenic induced PTSD treatment of folks with ME.

And if there is any money left after that, some of it could go to researching the institutional and psychological dynamics that created and sustained iatrogenic harm of ME patients.
 

Snowdrop

Rebel without a biscuit
Messages
2,933
Yes, I would. Coping is very important with chronic diseases.

@ivorin

But is psych research really necessary for coping skills to be found and learned? And in this climate particularly if in the UK you know the research will not be clean (used as stated). There is probably already an existing body of research for chronic illness anyway not specifically tied to ME. If not research than a wealth of info from any number of sources such as advocates for a variety of illnesses.

I think that this type of information is better coming from the wisdom of the community as opposed to being formally studied where people who have no or very little personal experience make assumptions and use data to extrapolate inferences as to what it all means.
 

ivorin

Senior Member
Messages
152
I agree, coping is very important with chronic illnesses. But what I don't understand is why you think that needs to be researched?
I have yet to find help in coping that is based on experience or AT LEAST a sound research basis related to pwME or similar chronic illnesses. This has led to many suicidal situations and very potent anxiety that I am handling wothout guidance. When you live in a country where you can only get psych help, you want it to be relevant.
 

me/cfs 27931

Guest
Messages
1,294
Any kind of psych research that would help get the vast numbers of undiagnosed ME/CFS sufferers correctly diagnosed would be welcome. Without a correct diagnosis, psych treatment is at best irrelevant.
 

Invisible Woman

Senior Member
Messages
1,267
I don't know where you live @ivorin but in the UK some places provide a form of CBT that is entirely different to the type pushed by the PACE trial.

This type of CBT is far more supportive and apparently (I've not experienced it personally), advises on how best to manage your energy, how to cope with the restrictions the condition puts on your everyday, how to cope with the loss of choice/control.

This type of CBT may also be used in other chronic conditions and some say they find it very helpful in coming to terms with being chronically ill.

Of course because both treatments are called CBT it causes no end of confusion with some saying that CBT helped them and other saying it harmed them. Probably because both sides are referring to different treatments under the same name.
 

ivorin

Senior Member
Messages
152
Any kind of psych research that would help get the vast numbers of undiagnosed ME/CFS sufferers correctly diagnosed would be welcome. Without a correct diagnosis, psych treatment is at best irrelevant.
As a severe sufferer, I am in need of psychological help in coping while trying and waiting for treatments. Many of them damage my health firther and create discouragement that can be helped with psy methods.
 

ivorin

Senior Member
Messages
152
I don't know where you live @ivorin but in the UK some places provide a form of CBT that is entirely different to the type pushed by the PACE trial.

This type of CBT is far more supportive and apparently (I've not experienced it personally), advises on how best to manage your energy, how to cope with the restrictions the condition puts on your everyday, how to cope with the loss of choice/control.

This type of CBT may also be used in other chronic conditions and some say they find it very helpful in coming to terms with being chronically ill.

Of course because both treatments are called CBT it causes no end of confusion with some saying that CBT helped them and other saying it harmed them. Probably because both sides are referring to different treatments under the same name.
In Croatia, the land of chronic fatigue = psychosis heh

But yeah, why I'm pushing the idea is because while we have countries whose establishment follows the cfs=psysomatic regime (and we will have them for a while longer), it is of benefit for them to at least have relevant research pointing to effective methods of supportive therapy.