Professor Coyne: Why the scientific community needs the PACE trial data to be released

By James C. Coyne, PhD, Professor of Health Psychology at University Medical Center, Groningen, the Netherlands where he teaches scientific writing and critical thinking:

There are obvious parallels between the politics behind persistence of the claim in the US for psychotherapy increasing survival time for cancer patients and those in the UK about cognitive behavior therapy being sufficient treatment for schizophrenia in the absence of medication or producing recovery from the debilitating medical condition, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. There are also parallels to investigators making controversial claims based on multivariate analyses, but not allowing access to data to independently evaluate the analyses. In both cases, patient well-being suffers.

If the ICO upholds the release of data for the PACE trial in the UK, it will pressure the US NIH to stop hypocritically endorsing data sharing and rewarding investigators whose credibility depends on not sharing their data.

As seen in a PLOS One study, unwillingness to share data in response to formal requests is

associated with weaker evidence (against the null hypothesis of no effect) and a higher prevalence of apparent errors in the reporting of statistical results. The unwillingness to share data was particularly clear when reporting errors had a bearing on statistical significance.

Why the PACE investigators should not appeal

In the past, PACE investigators have been quite dismissive of criticism, appearing to have assumed that being afflicted with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis precludes a critic being taken seriously, even when the criticism is otherwise valid. However, with publication of the long-term follow-up data in Lancet Psychiatry, they are now contending with accomplished academics whose criticisms cannot be so easily brushed aside. Yes, the credibility of the investigators’ interpretations of their data are being challenged. And even if they do not believe they need to be responsive to patients, they need to be responsive to colleagues. Releasing the data is the only acceptable response and not doing so risks damage to their reputations.

QMUL, Professors White and Sharpe, let the People’s data go.