Science Or Propaganda?

Wed Mar 11 20:15:49 GMT 2009 comment by Dr. Balance:

"It is well recognised amongst experts that CFS is a term for a number of illnesses. Often, the only symptom these patients have in common is fatigue. Given the different causes, it is lazy as well as illogical to offer one treatment for all.

As far as CFs is concerned, this article was PR for CBT. It's out of date, unscientific and drowning in spin and denial.

Finally, I'm not persuaded about the alleged hate mail. Yes, I've read defamatory and abusive essays relating to Prof. Wessely on the net. I accept he might have received the odd rude letter. Well, so have I. I have ME, I have long promoted ME as a distinct entity and challenged the simplistic psychological explanations. But if there was a defamation and hate mail competition, I'd win hands down.

The lack of a diagnostic test and reliance on criteria which can't differentiate CFS and depression etc means that many people are being misdiagnosed. Thus there are a few individuals who seem to be professional victims (and who hate all things psychiatric). However, most of the abuse stems from the frustration of reading a lot of nonsense about your illness and not being believed.

So what's really worth knowing? There are new research criteria to diagnose ME. And there's a conference in the US discussing the latest findings on CFS.

It would have taken less than five minutes on a medical search engine to show just how biased Prof. Wessely is. Why promote bias and spin?

If NS was a physician, you've just broken the Hippocratic Oath."

Science Or Propaganda?
Fri Mar 13 13:49:00 GMT 2009 comment by Dr. Balance:

"I have been informed that the sentence "It would have taken less than five minutes on a medical search engine to show just how biased Prof. Wessely is" may be interpreted as a personal attack on the individual mentioned. I disagree with attacks on individuals so hereby withdraw that sentence. However, I stand by the notion that the views of the CBT school, as reflected in the article, are biased."