biophile
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We all make mistakes, but for the "expert" authors of biopsychosocial papers on CFS it seems to happen rather frequently, coincidently in their favour too. It takes a lot of time and effort to thoroughly investigate even a single claim, and so many of them are made in various papers. To systematically examine the issue would be overwhelming, I usually discover them when I need to occasionally follow something else up or just happen to be already familiar with the source being cited.
It happens often enough that I suspect there are probably hundreds if not thousands of examples either already known or waiting to be discovered, anyone could probably select a paper at random and find a claim that is not supported by the reference given, and I don't mean just differences of opinion or interpretation or cherry picking (another can of worms) but blatant errors. Is this problem normal in wider academia? Is it spin or incompetence, and where are the peer reviewers in all this? How does it fit into the accusations of "zombie science" and criticisms of the (abuse of) "evidence based medicine" as practiced by proponents of and lobbyists for the biopsychosocial paradigm?
When I first read the term "smoke and mirrors" being applied to the biopsychosocial approach and cognitive behavioural model of CFS, I was relatively naive and thought that perhaps this wording was too strong, surely it couldn't be that bad even if there were some issues with the available evidence. However since then I have come across so many questionable studies and related statements that "smoke and mirrors" does indeed seem like an accurate description afterall. If all the papers and citations were fed into a computer model, would it look similar to a giant web of spin?
I'm starting this thread to document such misleading statements in the hope others will contribute. I will post several examples that I have worked on recently while they are relatively fresh. I'm sure there are countless examples that have already been discussed on other threads at Phoenix Rising or are embedded in my notes somewhere but I'm not going to wade through to find more examples right now, it was difficult enough preparing these examples.
It happens often enough that I suspect there are probably hundreds if not thousands of examples either already known or waiting to be discovered, anyone could probably select a paper at random and find a claim that is not supported by the reference given, and I don't mean just differences of opinion or interpretation or cherry picking (another can of worms) but blatant errors. Is this problem normal in wider academia? Is it spin or incompetence, and where are the peer reviewers in all this? How does it fit into the accusations of "zombie science" and criticisms of the (abuse of) "evidence based medicine" as practiced by proponents of and lobbyists for the biopsychosocial paradigm?
When I first read the term "smoke and mirrors" being applied to the biopsychosocial approach and cognitive behavioural model of CFS, I was relatively naive and thought that perhaps this wording was too strong, surely it couldn't be that bad even if there were some issues with the available evidence. However since then I have come across so many questionable studies and related statements that "smoke and mirrors" does indeed seem like an accurate description afterall. If all the papers and citations were fed into a computer model, would it look similar to a giant web of spin?
I'm starting this thread to document such misleading statements in the hope others will contribute. I will post several examples that I have worked on recently while they are relatively fresh. I'm sure there are countless examples that have already been discussed on other threads at Phoenix Rising or are embedded in my notes somewhere but I'm not going to wade through to find more examples right now, it was difficult enough preparing these examples.