By David Tuller, DrPH
Yesterday, I wrote a blog about a just-published but already out-dated conference abstract from a team led by Professor Esther Crawley, Bristol University’s methodologically and ethically challenged pediatrician and grant magnet. After I tweeted about it, I heard from Naomi Harvey, a zoologist, who said she’d written to BJPsychOpen about the abstract’s flaws. Hopefully, she—and any others who alerted the journal–will receive an adequate response.
My exchange with Dr Harvey prompted me to look again at the 2021 study (Clery et al) from which the conference abstract seems to have been drawn. Clery et al, published by BMJ Paediatrics Open, was called “Qualitative study of the acceptability and feasibility of acceptance and commitment therapy for adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome.” (BMJ Paediatrics Open describes itself as “an official journal of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.” Just to be clear; the RCPCH is a trade union that, like any trade union, promotes and protects the financial, political and professional interests of its members.)