Dr. T weighs in on the latest research

[George]

From Psychology Today Blog section Jacob Teitelbaum MD weighs in on the latest studies.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...v-controversy-heats-two-important-new-studies

from the artical

As a medical reporter who has been closely involved in the CFS & fibromyalgia field as a patient, physician and researcher for over 30 years, I find both the science and politics to be fascinating. You will hear some hard hitting attacks (sometimes done subtly, sometimes not so subtly) coming from both sides. And I suspect the melee has just begun.

From his web site a more lengthy article;

http://www.endfatigue.com/health_articles_c/Cfs_fm-xmrv_controversy_heats_up.html

I would not recommend trying this medication at this time. Although it may become worth using if shown to be effective in chronic fatigue syndrome, without evidence of its effectiveness for this disease the medication is too toxic. To give you an idea of the concerns, here's the FDA-required black box warning in the Physician's Desk Reference under AZT (Retrovir/zidovudine):

WARNING
Retrovir (zidovudine) has been associated with hematologic toxicity including neutropenia and severe anemia particularly in patients with advanced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease.
Prolonged use of Retrovir has been associated with symptomatic myopathy.
Lactic acidosis and severe hepatomegaly with steatosis, including fatal cases, have been reported with the use of nucleoside analogues alone or in combination, including Retrovir and other antiretrovirals.

and about the differences between the study's

The source of the WPI study patients, based on the paper, is also not clear to me. My main concern is that they not come largely from a single epidemic of CFS, such as the Tahoe group, as this could largely skew the results. Again, we look forward to seeing the results of testing of patients from around the country (and indeed around the world) to see what percentage are positive. Interestingly, rumor has it that the WPI has already run over 300 mailed in samples, with about 1/3 of them being positive, including some from the UK.

 

[Hysterical Woman]

Interesting George - thanks for posting.

 

[CJB]

Good article. Thanks.