By David Tuller, DrPH The Danish ME Association has sent and posted the following open letter to “Danish health politicians,” with a very impressive list of international signatories. It seemed important to give this letter wide circulation. (Note that footnotes 4 and 5 are linked to the names of two of the signatories, as in …
Trial By Error: The Danish ME Association’s Open Letter Read More »
By David Tuller, DrPH Last week I wrote a post on some of the signs used to diagnose people with “functional neurological disorder” (FND)–the phrase that has largely supplanted “conversion disorder” to describe neurological symptoms with no identified organic cause. In that post, I should have been clearer that I do not question whether people …
Trial By Error: Some More Thoughts on Functional Neurological Disorder Read More »
By David Tuller, DrPH My first exchange of views with the PACE authors involved the issue of case definition–the criteria used to identify the illness they called chronic fatigue syndrome. This exchange took place courtesy of The New York Times, not long after The Lancet published the results of the PACE trial. In March, 2011, …
Trial By Error: My 2011 Exchange with White et al about Case Definition Read More »
By David Tuller, DrPH One of my goals next year is to write more about so-called “medically unexplained symptoms,” also known as MUS. The term MUS might be useful as a descriptive name for the large category of phenomena that lack a proven pathophysiological pathway. But in the medical literature, and in the minds of …
Trial By Error: Shaky Evidence for Signs of Functional Neurological Disorders Read More »
By David Tuller, DrPH A new study in the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, posted December 16th, has reported that patients with chronic fatigue syndrome who experience major post-exertional malaise have a greater burden of psychological distress than those whose PEM is minimal or non-existent. Of course, this is not surprising. The sicker people are, with …
Trial By Error: PEM Is Bad and So Is Fukuda, New Study Finds Read More »
By David Tuller, DrPH On Friday, STAT posted my opinion piece about BMJ and the Lightning Process paper–in particular, about BMJ’s decision not to retract the paper despite the multiple documented violations of core ethical and methodological principles of medical research. That anti-scientific decision is potentially harmful not only to children suffering from a stigmatizing …
Trial By Error: My STAT Opinion Piece on BMJ and Dr Godlee Read More »
