[Angostura]

Except, of course that no-one sensible is calling these suffers 'hysteric' or 'crazy' are they? Certainly not this researchers. They are simply saying that their symptoms may have a psychological component. Which should not be controversial, if evidence-based.

[anigbrowl]

Are you sure about that? Insurers and primary care doctors are often very dismissive of symptoms, and may invoke the (wholly innocent and well-intentioned) arguments of researchers to deny treatment. That's not the fault of the researchers, but conversely researchers need to be mindful of how their work might be employed in the service of economic rather than clinical considerations when developing their hypotheses.

[erentz]

Problem is it’s not evidence based and we know there’s not a psychological component. The PACE trial and work of Sharpe are pretty widely debunked which is why they complain of being under attack. (See links elsewhere.) Meanwhile if you go watch some videos by the scientists at OMF and Stanford and elsewhere you’ll see they’re uncovering big differences in the bodies and blood of people with ME/CFS. It’s looking like it’s probably going to turn out to be an pretty complex autoimmune disease.

So when Sharpe and his friends continue to point fingers and say it’s in your head to these patients, and continue to push their exercise therapy, and continue to sow confusion, it’s really easy to see how they cause offense. Because they’re doing real harm to sick people by doing that. All because their egos are more important than hard science.