Professor Chris Ferguson has called the PACE trial authors’ failure to release data from the trial one of “the most dramatic pieces of ‘bad news’ for academic psychology during 2015.” He made his remark in the May issue of the British Psychological Society’s official magazine, The Psychologist, which is read by the Society’s 50,000 members.
Professor Ferguson, a psychologist at Stetson University, Florida, said in his opinion-piece that psychology was in a “credibility hole” and that “too often, academic psychology has created a veneer rather than reality of science.” He added that “the refusal by scholars in the PACE trial of chronic fatigue treatment to release data revealed continued problems with transparency in published science…. Our problems are attracting considerable attention and, as the saying goes, there’s no better disinfectant than sunlight.”
Last week, a tribunal was held in London to consider Queen Mary University of London’s appeal against the Information Commissioner’s decision that data from the PACE trial should be released to a patient who requested it. A ruling is awaited.
The Year Ahead
January 23, 2025
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As we embark on the new year, we are excited to share updates about #MEAction’s advocacy projects and community programs with you! While we focus on advancing support, research, and treatments for people with ME, we’re also closely monitoring changes to public health systems under the incoming administration, and will pivot as needed to fight
2 thoughts on “The Psychologist: PACE has “problems with transparency””
Has anyone from MEAction contacted Michael B. Bracken at the School of Public Health at the Yale Center for Neurology about the possibility of him or his crew parsing the flawed PACE Trial Study before its disinformation is even more widely accepted and in the hope it will be withdrawn with apologies? He recently (April 20, 2016) presented a “Robert S. Gordon, Jr. Lecture” at the NIH called “Biomedical research: increasing value, reducing waste” https://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=18959&bhcp=1 . Considering his history and interests, Dr. Bracken’s voice might carry more weight (especially at the Lancet, with which he’s worked), than David Tuller’s, though Tuller’s “Trial by Error” in two parts was excellent & comprehensive, it has only been published in full in that “virology blog”.
Great idea, Sura! Thank you.
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