ELLE Magazine: Chronic fatigue syndrome is not all in your head (Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan)

[slysaint]

Just learnt of this recently. EVERYONE SHOULD USE THIS WEBSITE AND ARCHIVE PAGES FOR THE PURPOSE OF HISTORY .

eg. Here is a good example

https://web.archive.org/web/2014062...treatments-for-chronic-fatigue-syndromeme-2-2

I had to double back to make sure it was the PACE trials that were being commented on; I know this has been covered a million times but it never fails to astound me how all these people got away with it, not just those running the trials but the reviewers
"It was extremely rigorous. It was large and it was randomised. The study was carefully conducted in the manner of a drug intervention study to not only establish the superiority of one treatment over the other but also to carefully report any side effects or harm from those treatments. Since the treatments were therapies and not drugs stringent efforts were made to ensure the ‘purity’ of each treatment and to rapidly report any adverse effects. As a trial this involved a huge amount of checking and cross checking."

 

[Yogi]

I had to double back to make sure it was the PACE trials that were being commented on; I know this has been covered a million times but it never fails to astound me how all these people got away with it, not just those running the trials but the reviewers
"It was extremely rigorous. It was large and it was randomised. The study was carefully conducted in the manner of a drug intervention study to not only establish the superiority of one treatment over the other but also to carefully report any side effects or harm from those treatments. Since the treatments were therapies and not drugs stringent efforts were made to ensure the ‘purity’ of each treatment and to rapidly report any adverse effects. As a trial this involved a huge amount of checking and cross checking."

Someone should contact each individual now and ask for their EXPERT REACTION now !!!

 

[Apple]

I'm so so tired of reading and fighting these claims. But I just have to say I love this quote:

"The evidence is now so strong that ME/CFS is a serious multisystem neuro-immune disease that it becomes intellectually embarrassing for anyone to continue to consider it to be a psychosomatic disorder"

Thank you Countess.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Alex
yes, they are uacks and charlatans and are desperate to cover their arses, not just them, but the whole stinking evil hidebound arrogant stupid "Establishment" hence they are, exactly as the Soviets did, giving their "pet charlatans" so much coverage and honours

THIS time they had better NOT get away with it, they must NOT be allowed to slink away quietly into the night
THIS time the scum need exposed in Public and *JAILED* for the rest of their miserable scummy lives, for being part of one of the worst evils in Human history.
*SICK* of these kind of vermin repeatedly getting away with it :/

 

[Woolie]

I wonder whether over-psychologising our health and behaviours is part of the human condition - a bit like racism. You can't ever stamp it out, you can only manage it. You have to keep fighting against it.

Its a lot of things:

- it captures our imagination: physical illness is boring, but if someone's paralysis is because of their fears, well, that's fascinating.
- it fills that gap that's created when we don't know or understand something. We humans just hate that vacuum of uncertainty.
- its part of a narrative that makes people feel more in control of their health and general fate. If you stay positive, you will be healthy, that distracts from the utter randomness and meaninglessness of the way actual illness strikes people. We also use psychosomatic explanations to give meaning to that random meaninglessness ("he died of a broken heart").
- it gives people permission to withdraw compassion. I think people have limited compassion. They are "required" to provide it in certain situations where it would look bad not to (a child in a wheelchair, for example). But we as a species constantly strive to find ways to be relieved of the burden of feeling other people's suffering. If we can apportion blame, it feels like a relief. Freedom from the guilt of it all, maybe?

Maybe is a modern way of believing in magic, in a world where believing in actual magic is frowned upon?

 

[alex3619]

Maybe is a modern way of believing in magic, in a world where believing in actual magic is frowned upon?

Based on some replies I have gotten it strikes a nerve when I write that its an invocation of magic.

 

[Sean]

Call it 'woo', and watch their heads explode with hypocritical outrage.

 

[Tom Kindlon]

Talking to Marina, my hairs stood on end. I remembered how I'd limped around endless clinics but was eventually put in touch with a doctor who, like O'Sullivan, unpacked my symptoms and gave me an achievable path to a recovery, which involved CBT ('This week I will walk 100 steps each day; next week I will walk 115 steps').

Such a form of CBT was assessed in the £5,000,000-PACE trial. Participants with CFS who got that and specialist medical care were compared to those who got specialist medical care only. Another group got graded exercise therapy plus specialist medical care. There was not a statistically significantly higher level of recovery in either intervention group compared to those who just got specialist medical care alone:
See:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21641846.2017.1259724

 

[alex3619]

Call it 'woo', and watch their heads explode with hypocritical outrage.

Pity that is not literal. Oops. Did I write that? Please forget I wrote that.

 

[Solstice]

Based on some replies I have gotten it strikes a nerve when I write that its an invocation of magic.

This sounds fun.

 

[SK2018]

Nearly all chronic diseases that effect the nervous system are auto immune ,this is fact ME is most likely also.Immunw system B cells can wreak havoc on the body when they go wrong and I mean havoc and its relentless.