What would have been the outcome of the PACE trial had the investigators followed its original protocol instead of relaxing the criteria for “recovery” as the trial progressed? Researchers have just published a paper seeking to answer this question in a reanalysis of the PACE trial based on its original protocol. The authors concluded that
The 2011 PACE trial examined the effect of graded exercise therapy and cognitive behavioural therapy against standard medical care, but refused to share their data.
West Australian Alem Matthees filed a UK Freedom of Information Act. The ruling released the data and further examination found glaring problems with the study.
Do people really recover as a result of CBT and graded exercise? Sadly not, says a new analysis of PACE People with ME/CFS dream of recovery — of getting their health and lives back. So the results published by the PACE trial, showing that 22% of participants recovered after just 12 months of CBT or
This study is the worst kind of science, and noticing flaws does not mean we are sociopaths or psychopaths. Neither does it mean we’re close-minded members of a group that’s only interested in our own views.
Patients and statisticians have used the recently released data from the PACE trial to show that cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise therapy did not help patients in the study to recover. Alem Matthees, an Australian patient who obtained the data after a two-year battle over his Freedom of Information request, applied the study authors’
The time for decency in the face of the overwhelming failure of PACE for many has justifiably passed you by, but potential futility aside, I make this appeal regardless. Every day there is a new ME/CFS patient. Today you can spare that patient from harm. You can spare them from being accused of malingering by their own friends and family. You can spare them from wrongful imprisonment in a psychiatric ward. Today you can set ME/CFS research on an expedited path that leads to real treatments and ultimately a cure. End this tragedy now.
After months of hard work from #MEAction, #MEAction Network UK, and many others including advocates, government officials, lawyers, and PACE experts, a group of concerned global citizens have crafted a petition to the UK government to stop graded exercise therapy trials in ME/CFS. If this petition reaches 10,000 signatures from UK citizens, its content will
Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) has released the PACE data to a patient who requested it under the Freedom of Information Act, as ordered by a recent tribunal, on the last possible day to lodge an appeal against the court’s order. The move follows the publication three days previously of an open letter from
The Lancet has rejected a letter criticising the PACE trial that it invited from a large group of scientists. This decision was made after its editor discussed the matter with the study’s authors. Professor Vincent Racaniello, who led the letter, described the behaviour of Dr. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, as “unprofessional”. Racaniello, with
The name of Australian patient Alem Matthees has become familiar in the last few days since a tribunal ruled that Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) must release to him the anonymised raw data from the PACE trial. Matthees requested in March 2014 under the Freedom of Information Act. The decision is widely regarded as
