Thus, the PACE investigators proved nothing more than a familiar adage among statisticians: If you torture the data, they will confess anything.
Researchers in the U.S. and Australia have recently made great progress toward
identifying biomarkers for ME/CFS, which may lead to an effective medical intervention. Over 100 prominent researchers, clinicians and organizations have called on Psychological Medicine
to retract the PACE article, although the journal has not yet publicly responded.
Thanks to the original PACE announcement, however, graded exercise is still routinely prescribed throughout the U.S. and the U.K. despite reports that the treatments can cause intolerable pain and relapse. Those who question GET are often told that they must simply exercise more, no matter how badly they crash afterward.
It is bad enough to torture the data, but it is indefensible to torture patients based on manipulated results.