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Category: Psychosocial

The expert testimony to NICE that took apart the case for CBT and graded exercise for ME/CFS

The expert testimony to NICE that took apart the case for CBT and graded exercise for ME/CFS

Update: the final guidelines, which apparently said much the same as the initial ones, were due to be published on 18 August, 2021. Unexpectedly, NICE announced on 17 August that it was pulling publication – apparently after coming under pressure from supporters of CBT and graded exercise. Professor Jonathan Edwards told NICE it should not recommend either CBT or graded exercise as all the trial evidence for them used subjective outcomes in unblinded trials, giving unreliable results. He showed why…

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What treatments are being tested? Ongoing, registered or planned clinical trials for ME/CFS

What treatments are being tested? Ongoing, registered or planned clinical trials for ME/CFS

I am delighted to have a guest blog from the talented blogger and advocate Michiel Tack and the remarkable advocate Evelien Van Den Brink (who famously lobbied the European Parliament). They investigated what studies of new treatments were underway or had been funded and present the results here. There’s not as much in the pipeline as ME/CFS needs, which reflects the lack of fundamental research. However, COVID-19 and Long Covid have the potential to rapidly improve the situation. Evelien and…

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PACE trial’s findings fundamentally challenged by a new study

PACE trial’s findings fundamentally challenged by a new study

Analysing PACE the way the authors originally promised to do showed that CBT and GET didn’t do much to improve self-reported physical function and fatigue and did not lead to recovery. Even the very limited self-reported gains in this unblinded trial are likely to be illusory because they are not backed up by meaningful gains in objective measures, such as fitness. The self-report gains also appear not to last. We now need biomedical research to pave the way for effective treatments.