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Worse Than the Disease by David Tuller

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Denise

Senior Member
Messages
1,095
Apologies if this new article by David Tuller has been posted already

"Worse Than the Disease
A popular therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome made many patients worse. Adding insult to injury, research supporting it is unraveling.
10.27.2016 / By David Tuller

After living in Oklahoma for 40 years, Nita and Doug Thatcher retired in 2009 to the Rust Belt city of Lorain, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb that hugs Lake Erie. When Nita needed to find a new primary care doctor, a friend recommended someone from the Cleveland Clinic. Nita knew the institution’s reputation for cutting-edge research and superior medical services. But as a longtime patient grappling with chronic fatigue syndrome, a debilitating disorder that scientists still don’t fully understand, she was wary when she learned that the clinic was promoting a common but potentially dangerous treatment for the illness: a steady increase in activity known as graded exercise therapy. ...."
 
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worldbackwards

Senior Member
Messages
2,051
dancer

dancer

Senior Member
Messages
298
Location
Midwest, USA
This article is as much a tour de force as the Virology articles. Wow! And the patient who was profiled was so courageous to share her experiences. I hope many many people read this.

I ached as I read about the attempts at GET which set her back - so similar to my experience. When I was diagnosed I went to the CDC website to read up on it, and since CBT was supposed to be a "treatment", I dragged myself to a psychologist and psychiatrist who listened to my frustration with the way illness had affected my life, but had nothing else to offer since they both said there was clearly something of physical origin that needed treatment.

I also tried upping my exercise (I'd been very active before the EBV infection that started it all - and after all, if major medical organizations were recommending it, it must be the answer, right?) and lost more and more ground. After becoming mostly bedbound for months, all doctors had to offer was shrugs.

Thank you again and again for bearing witness, David Tuller!
 
Esther12

Esther12

Senior Member
Messages
13,774
Is this finally something David Tuller will have gotten paid for?!

Undark is a respected and influential site, so great to have him writing there. This is well worth promoting and might be seen as a more credible source than his virology blogs (this shouldn't matter, but sadly does).
 
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Yogi

Senior Member
Messages
1,132
There's a new science magazine on the block: Undark, named for a century-old radium paint that seemed wondrous at first but later turned out to be deadly.

It's an independent online magazine published by the Knight Science Journalism program at MIT (my fellowship alma mater), and it aims to "explore science not just as a 'gee-whiz' phenomenon, but as a frequently wondrous, sometimes contentious, and occasionally troubling byproduct of human culture."

.....

Read an excerpt below and the full story in Undark, and then please share in the comments section at the bottom: What do you think is the moral of this story?
Click to expand...

http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2016/10/27/chronic-fatigue-misguided-therapy-undark

http://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/about



If someone is going to comment as not able to do so right now. Can you mention that they change title as "fatigue syndrome" F48.0 is mental and not same as CFS.
 
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