<story><title>Analysis of chronic fatigue syndrome study casts doubt on published results</title><url>https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/21/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-pace-trial</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>philipkglass</author><text>I had a sibling who struggled with CFS for years. Even before this bad study came out the usual reaction from doctors was &lt;i&gt;you&amp;#x27;re suffering from mental illness&amp;#x2F;try exercising&amp;#x2F;you&amp;#x27;re faking&lt;/i&gt;. It sounds almost like this study was constructed for the convenience of doctors so they could point to the publication and keep suggesting what they had already suggested.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s hard living with a debilitating medical condition that doesn&amp;#x27;t have good treatments or a clear cause. It&amp;#x27;s even harder when the doctor says &amp;quot;I think it&amp;#x27;s all in your head&amp;quot; instead of &amp;quot;sorry, we really don&amp;#x27;t know how to treat this yet.&amp;quot; That sort of consistent dismissal&amp;#x2F;borderline victim-blaming from real doctors is what I think pushed my mom toward bogus alternative health practices. There appears to be nothing medically valid about chiropractors but at least they don&amp;#x27;t call you crazy just for telling them about the experiences you&amp;#x27;ve been having.</text></comment>
<story><title>Analysis of chronic fatigue syndrome study casts doubt on published results</title><url>https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/21/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-pace-trial</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>j374</author><text>As a near 10-year sufferer of severe ME&amp;#x2F;CFS, I can confirm this study has done unbelievable damage to the cause and should absolutely be retracted in full. Recent research has identified unquestionable, tangible and severe abnormalities in immune and metabolic function that are unique and consistent to ME&amp;#x2F;CFS sufferers, and this is no longer realistically up for debate. Most doctors though still dismiss the condition as psychological, and because of this (and even though the burden has been shown worse than other immune disorders like AIDS in many cases) funding is virtually non-existent. This study has been so widely disseminated and taught to medical professionals, the damage will take some time to undo unfortunately.</text></comment>