Thursday, January 6, 2011

PACE Trial Manuals claim that unethical CBT is curative

By Professor Malcolm Hooper:

The over-riding international concern is that when the PACE Trial results are eventually published, they will deliver what has long been known to be the PIs' intention and primary objective, ie. the results will confirm the PIs' favoured intervention of "cognitive restructuring" (which incorporates graded aerobic exercise) as the intervention of choice. This is an intervention that is specifically designed to disabuse ME/CFS sufferers of their (correct) perception that they suffer from a serious, multi-system neuroimmune disease.

The cognitive modification is directive, not supportive, ie. it is not offered as adjunctive psychological support for those dealing with a life-wrecking illness because the PACE Trial Manuals claim that it is curative: the chief PI, Professor Peter White, claims that "a full recovery is possible" (Psychother Psychosom 2007:76(3):171-176); the participants' CBT Manual informs people that the PACE Trial therapies are curative, and it is asserted that "many people have successfully overcome their CFS/ME" with such behavioural interventions ("Information for relatives, partners and friends", page 123).

To recommend behavioural modification strategies for those suffering from such devastating organic illness would be inhumane and inexcusable: if such an intervention were to be imposed on those with other neurological diseases (such as motor neurone disease or multiple sclerosis) to force them to change their correct perception that they suffer from a serious organic disorder, it would be roundly condemned as unethical. Read more>>

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