Simon Wessely in New Scientist

[skipskip30]

Sorry, I'm not that generous. It's not like he made a bad judgement about what color to paint the waiting room. People have died because of what he's said and the policies he pushed to put in place. Tens of thousands of others have suffered physically, lost their health, careers, families, and goodness knows what else because of him He needs to be held accountable. People like him who are in positions of authority need to understand that they will be held accountable for their deliberate actions in destroying people's lives. I'm in no way inclined to allow him to get off by playing CYA games after the fact. Protecting his dignity is the farthest thing from my mind.

Quite right. While it would be good for everyone if he changed course the fact remains he has caused immense harm to M.E/CFS sufferers and deserves to have his medical licence stripped. All he is doing is seeing the biological evidence mount and trying to save face. A truly evil man that should never be forgiven or let off the hook.

 

[Aurator]

PS I also read, many years ago, of an anecdotal case of where the participant in a CBT/GET trial gave one answer, but the person recording it wrote down the opposite. I have seen this myself in another context, which I do not intend to elaborate. How common is this? Rare? The norm?

I don't know about examples of this kind of fabrication specifically, but I suspect a little embroidery to make the patient's recorded testimony fit with the interviewer's view of what is wrong with the patient is fairly commonplace.

In my own case, the doctor at the "fatigue clinic" appraising me for the first time recorded in the subsequent letter to my GP that I had reported I was suffering from "depressed mood". I had reported nothing of the kind (a witness was present who confirmed this) and I insisted that this detail be expunged from my record. I haven't yet checked whether it has been.

 

[hamster336]

Hell Hath no Fury,
I agree (with your point about the deconditioning)....I had about three days off with the Glandular Fever....certainly not enough time to decondition. Absurd!

 

[redaxe]

Hell Hath no Fury,
I agree (with your point about the deconditioning)....I had about three days off with the Glandular Fever....certainly not enough time to decondition. Absurd!

Haha well I went one further- I continued exercising believing it was good for me - until the PEM became so blatantly obvious that I realised I had to stop.
So I guess that gives me a good rebut to the psychobabblers

 

[Hell...Hath...No...Fury..]

Haha well I went one further- I continued exercising believing it was good for me - until the PEM became so blatantly obvious that I realised I had to stop.
So I guess that gives me a good rebut to the psychobabblers

Ditto to that. It was only paralysis from the neck down that eventually stopped me.

The people at my work place who DID take plenty of time off to rest are fine now. The only idiot who lost their life was the one who didn't rest at all; and yet I'M the one who was deconditioned ridiculous

 

[nasim marie jafry]

Not sure if this SW paper has been covered yet, but came across this 2013 ResearchGate on Twitter (via @maxwhd):

http://www.researchgate.net/publication/11786544_Chronic_fatigue_syndrome_-_Trials_and_tribulations

 

[Snowdrop]

You have to wonder why SW goes to such great lengths of exertion to try and convince us of how wrong we are, how abusive and divisive, how against our own best interests we are.

I have to ask: what's it to him? Please Sir SW abandon us. Abandon us now and completely. We'll survive it.

 

[Snowdrop]

FYI: The whole article is too long for me to read so I skimmed the beginning and middle and read the last several paragraphs.

His concern for us seems truly touching. I might even have shed a tear except for this darn Sjogren's (I have deconditioned tear ducts--probably due to a life long lack of empathy and therefore ability to cry) I wonder what the treatment for this is. . .

I also found it interesting that we now have a small (but powerful ) cadre of research scientists prepared to do our bidding.
I'm even now drafting a letter to Ian Lipkin, Mady Hornig and others asking if I may please call them my minions.

 

[Effi]

I wonder what the treatment for this is. . .

"This person you call Sjogrens... He clearly traumatized you so you became a coldhearted person, unable to feel any emotion. Through a double serving of CBT we will change this behavioral pattern and we'll have you crying in no time!"

 

[lansbergen]

Please Sir SW abandon us. Abandon us now and completely. We'll survive it.

Ditto

 

[SilverbladeTE]

"With friends like these, who needs enemies?!"