Balls!
The ME Association has helpfully posted the full text (linked to above) of a charming article which appeared in BMJ recently: Defeatism is undermining evidence that chronic fatigue syndrome can be treated. You can read responses here. I have submitted a reply but it's not up yet.
Am not wasting any more energy on these wilfully blind psychiatrists and their self-important commentary, and reliance on NICE nonsense.
(I would re-title the BMJ article as Psychiatrists' delusions and lies are undermining the progress of biomedical research into ME.)
The ME Association has helpfully posted the full text (linked to above) of a charming article which appeared in BMJ recently: Defeatism is undermining evidence that chronic fatigue syndrome can be treated. You can read responses here. I have submitted a reply but it's not up yet.
Am not wasting any more energy on these wilfully blind psychiatrists and their self-important commentary, and reliance on NICE nonsense.
(I would re-title the BMJ article as Psychiatrists' delusions and lies are undermining the progress of biomedical research into ME.)
8 comments:
Have you read any of the Malcolm Hooper report yet? (http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/magical-medicine.pdf)
He tears them to pieces very methodically - it makes for a great read. At the very end in an appendix he compares them to Holocaust deniers and explains their tactics.
I've only read bits of it (it's over 400 pages!!), but it feels good to know that someone has done such a thorough job in our support.
And thanks for the tennis ball link - very helpful!
Nicky, I haven't read this report, I may dip in. After 27 years, I get so tired of ME and reading/writing about it, but these loopy psychiatrists get me so bloody mad. I often think of the ME debate as being like the Middle East, such polarised views, though I tend to equate the blinkered 'non-believers' with the hardline rightwing Israelis who deny Palestinians their rights. I also often think of people with ME as being without a state, at the mercy of those in power, those who make up their own truths about us, those who twist the agenda... Conversely, I see the ME 'militants' as suicide bombers, fucking it up for everyone with their extremism. Meanwhile, the rest of us are in the middle, just trying to get on with life as best we can, constantly being hampered by the non-believers, the powerful. Quite frankly, it's a wonder we're not all suicide bombers by now (in the ME context).
... my BMJ comment hasn't been posted, maybe it was rejected... i will post it here if it doesn't appear tomorrow.
My response to BMJ article, which was not published, too cheeky, perhaps:
Psychiatrists love to trot out that 'depression can co-exist with ME, just as it can with illnesses like cancer and motor neuron disease'... what they seem almost wilfully blind to is the fact the people with other serious (physical) illnesses have not - one hopes - been ignored or
insulted for years and years by many in the medical profession, and that any depression that people with ME might succumb to is often as much a result of the lack of belief they have received at the hands of the medical profession as anything else.
Also, do the authors of this paper not know - or again is it wilful blindness? - that people with ME campaigned vigorously for the rejection of the guideline on ME that NICE has imposed?
CBT is useless, GET is harmful - it makes the ME symptoms worse.
But what would I know compared to these wise psychiatrists? I have only been experiencing the (often catastrophic) effects of ME for 27
years, since I became ill (triggered by Coxsackie B4) when I was an undergraduate. I was diagnosed by a consultant neurologist.
Oh, and I have no history of depression.
Competing interests:
None declared
There have been some excellent responses, I just hope some of the non-believers pay heed. (They won't, of course, and the circus will go on.)
Nicky, I glanced at the Hooper report, it looks compelling, the subtitle is chilling in its simplicity: How to Make an Illness Disappear.
pg.435 'Deniers consistently ignore existing evidence which contradicts their own preferred theories: they disregard evidence, they misconstrue findings, they distort figures and they speculate.'
This is my 2nd comment to BMJ to be ignored:
Exactly, there is no defeatism: we want to get better, we are
desperate to get better. Thankfully, there are researchers digging down to the truth - the biomedical truth - slowly, but surely.
But that truth is still not being acknowledged by a core of
medics/psychiatrists.
The above article could be re-titled: Psychiatrists' insistence on
CBT/GET is undermining the progress of biomedical research.
It is no wonder some in the ME community are labelled as militants. We are angry and exhausted and baffled at not being listened to. When will
it end? What does it take?
It's disappointing that the BMJ is ignoring your comments. This whole issue is heart-breakingly infuriating. I like your first reply to Nicky, it would make a good post on its own.
Hey honey, Yup, I have been blacklisted, apparently, by BMJ. They published me last time, I am not sure what has changed. Maybe they link to my blog & see me swearing at the authors. Maybe I am a suicide bomber! The excellent comments that *have* been published will still be ignored by the all powerful psychs. They know best!
well, there you go, my (second) comment is now up.
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/340/feb11_1/c738#231492
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