- Messages
- 28
I was watching his talk at the 2013 Invest in M.E. Conference in London. He put up this graphic, used in marketing, to explain why he thinks M.E. has taken so long to become mainstream among docs.
He thinks right now that we still have some people stuck at stage one, the outright denialists, stage two people are those who believe that it is a real disease but is still mysterious and that nothing can essentially be done, and that we're seeing stage 3 reactions from some to news about rituximab.
There seems to be a lot of overwrought hand wringing about the safety of rituximab, this blog being a case in point. http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/rituximab-for-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-jumping-the-g/
I had heard a lot about side effects of rituximab, it's potential for fatal reactions being one that stood out. But I was surprised to hear, according to Fluge and Mella, that risk is one in 100,000. Roughly the same risk as for going under general anaesthetic. It also is a drug that oncologists and others who administer it have a lot of experience with. They generally understand the side effects and how to deal with them.
So why all the concern about gullible M.E. Patients duped into dubious medical trials? Seems to me to be less about "proper medicine", more a psychological resistance to adopting a new way of thinking.
He thinks right now that we still have some people stuck at stage one, the outright denialists, stage two people are those who believe that it is a real disease but is still mysterious and that nothing can essentially be done, and that we're seeing stage 3 reactions from some to news about rituximab.
There seems to be a lot of overwrought hand wringing about the safety of rituximab, this blog being a case in point. http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/rituximab-for-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-jumping-the-g/
I had heard a lot about side effects of rituximab, it's potential for fatal reactions being one that stood out. But I was surprised to hear, according to Fluge and Mella, that risk is one in 100,000. Roughly the same risk as for going under general anaesthetic. It also is a drug that oncologists and others who administer it have a lot of experience with. They generally understand the side effects and how to deal with them.
So why all the concern about gullible M.E. Patients duped into dubious medical trials? Seems to me to be less about "proper medicine", more a psychological resistance to adopting a new way of thinking.