By David Tuller, DrPH
Todd Davenport is a professor of physical therapy at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. He is also part of a research team from Workwell Foundation, an exercise physiology center in Ripon, California, that pioneered the use of 2-day cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) to document the core ME and ME/CFS symptom of post-exertional malaise (PEM). In its new ME/CFS guidelines, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence also refers to this phenomenon as post-exertional symptom exacerbation (PESE).
David Tuller
Trial By Error: A Letter to Journal Brain About Paper Claiming POTS Is a “Functional Psychogenic Disorder”
By David Tuller, DrPH
I recently criticized a study from New York University’s neurology department. The investigators wildly over-interpreted their findings in order to argue that postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, is a “functional psychogenic disorder.” This morning, I sent a letter to Brain, the journal that published the paper, on behalf of several colleagues as well as myself. I have also posted the letter on a pre-print server, and below as well.
Trial By Error: King’s College London Still Promoting Discredited CBT/GET/Deconditioning Paradigm (Update)
By David Tuller, DrPH
UPDATE, August 16, 2022: Last week, Charles Shepherd, medical advisor of the ME Association, received a response to his inquiry about the King’s College London website from an administrator at the relevant unit. Here’s the note:
Trial By Error: Is POTS a “Functional Psychogenic Disorder”? Yes, According to NYU Research Team
By David Tuller, DrPH
Research into conditions categorized as “medically unexplained symptoms” (MUS) or “functional” disorders seems rife with studies that eagerly interpret associations and correlations as causal relationships. Not surprisingly, these proposed causal relationships tend to flow in the direction required by the investigators’ hypotheses, not in the direction that would undermine their arguments.
Trial By Error: A Few Things I’ve Read (or Heard) Lately About ME/CFS and Long Covid
By David Tuller, DrPH
Here are a few things I’ve recently read (or listened to).
FreakonomicsMD podcast
The Freakonomics brand is well-known in the US. I didn’t realize there was a Freakonomics, M.D. podcast until I listened to this recent half-hour episode. The podcast is hosted by Dr Bapu Jena, a physician and economist at Harvard Medical School. The sub-head of this particular edition pretty much sums up the focus of the informative and thoughtful discussion: ”Chronic fatigue syndrome looks remarkably similar to Long Covid, but has been ignored by the medical community. Could patients finally get some answers to their debilitating illness?”
Trial By Error: Professor Chalder Reports CBT Does Not Work for Post-Stroke Fatigue, Calls for More Research
By David Tuller, DrPH
Calling out a Trudie Chalder paper is way too easy. It’s also old hat for Virology Blog—going back to 2015 and my initial investigation into the now-discredited PACE trial, of which she was one of three lead investigators. She is a professor of “cognitive behavioural psychotherapy” at King’s College London, so she researches the impact of CBT on whatever illness is at hand. That’s all Professor Chalder does; she’s a one-trick pony.