Lightning Process - The Falsehood of Magical Medicine

from Invest in ME Newsletter March/April 2010:

"When ME biomedical research and researchers have been starved of funding by the UK Medical Research Council it is particularly galling to hear that
the charity AYME's medical advisor, Esther Crawley, is to receive £160,000 from the Linbury Trust and the Ashden Trust to look at the psycho-therapy which is the Lightning process [http://www.bristol.ac.uk/ccah/news/2...esthercrawley].

Not only is this a waste of scarce resources
but children aged 8-18 are to be used to perform this study.

There are many stories of the damage this series of courses can do to patients - a business enterprise which is unregulated, has no valid research into the "theory" behind it which really warrants funding of it (certainly not in preference to the funding of biomedical research into ME) and for which anyone can seemingly attend a few courses and set up a business, with no medical training.

This reminds us of a similar psychological approach to ME which that same charity discussed in a conference in 2005 - Reverse Therapy (RT) - with their then medical advisor, child psychiatrist Dr Derek Proudlove, who reported on his successful pilot study on RT. Five years on and children with ME are still ill but now we have another expensive training programme attracting the attention of another medical advisor.

We thought to check the definition of a pyramid business - "A successful pyramid scheme combines a fake yet seemingly credible business with a simple-to-understand yet sophisticated-sounding money-making formula which is used for profit".

Those who subscribe to organisations who market, advocate or advertise businesses under the guise of treatments for vulnerable and chronically ill people might reflect on the policy of the charity they are supporting.

If this training programme really needs research then why not start with adults who can give informed consent - and why not test it on a well known patient group with clear biomarkers such as diabetics or MS patients to see if these patients stop "doing" diabetes or MS after three days of training. Why are ME patients always the target for therapy businesses? If there is funding available for research into ME then why not direct it to biomedical research?"

Doctor Speedy:
And yes, please try flying to the moon so you GET nearer to the God of Lightning and if he strikes a match and let the ball slip through his hands and that cures you than fantastico.

It is a bit like the Robinson and Carson therapy for Steve McLaren. It cured him of that horrible disease called the England manager’s job alias northern rock to kick against by any tabloid on the island.

And I agree, he was so daft to instruct his goalies, ignore all the evidence that we see on our TV screens on a weekly base that it is better if goalies pick up the ball and hold on to it.

But no, they had done group therapy CBT sessions to improve their perforations in their gloves, or is it performance enhancing drugs that CBT stuff, so illegal as can be than???

You sniff it, snort it, smoke it and then spit it out. Is that how it works and why it is so useless in ME?

Now come to think of it, is CBT not just another way of spelling Cannabis Blowing Treatment, or is that a misconception???

Hmmm ...