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By David Tuller, DrPH In late December, the International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology published an article called “Prevalence and treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and co-morbid severe health anxiety.” This paper, from investigators at the University of Bath and Oxford University, actually included two separate studies documenting the purported relationship between a …

Trial By Error: Now There’s CBT for ‘Health Anxiety’ in CFS Read More »

By David Tuller, DrPH UK Funding for Major Genetics ME Study Two of the UK’s largest public funding agencies announced this week that they would provide £3.2 million (around $4 million at current rates) for a study that will analyze genetic material from as many as 20,000 people to search for underlying causes of myalgic …

Trial By Error: UK Funds Genetics Project; My Letter to CODES Investigators Read More »

By David Tuller, DrPH [*In the last paragraph, I mistakenly referred to the CODES protocol rather than the CODES statistical analysis plan. I apologize for the error.] I have recently written about CODES, the high-profile clinical trial investigating whether cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) could reduce the frequency of dissociative seizures, also known as  psychogenic non-epileptic …

Trial By Error: More Questions About CODES Trial of CBT for Seizures Read More »

Lancet Psychiatry recently published the results of a high-profile trial of cognitive behavior therapy as a treatment for so-called dissociative seizures, also known as psychogenic non-epileptic seizures. The trial, nicknamed CODES, found that CBT had no impact on seizure frequency–the primary outcome. The average number of seizures per month dropped in both the treatment and …

Trial By Error: Trio of Trials Shows Limits of CBT for Medically Unexplained Symptoms Read More »

By David Tuller, DrPH Last week, I wrote about a troubling press release issued by King’s College London regarding a major study of cognitive behavioural therapy as a treatment for so-called dissociative seizures. On Friday, I sent a letter to the two communications people listed on the press release about the study, as well as …

Trial By Error: A Letter to KCL, Another Letter to BMJ Read More »