Trial by Error, Continued: Is PACE a Case of Research Misconduct?

by David Tuller, DrPH I have tip-toed around the question of research misconduct since I started my PACE investigation. In my long Virology Blog series in October 2015, I decided to document the trial’s extensive list of flaws—or as many as I could fit into 15,000 words, which wasn’t all of them—without arguing that this constituted research misconduct. My goal was simply to make the strongest possible case that this was very bad science and that the evidence did not support the claims that cognitive behavior therapy and graded exercise therapy were effective treatments for the illness. Since then, I have referred to PACE as “utter nonsense,” “complete bullshit,” “a piece of crap,” and “this f**king trial.” My colleague and the host of Virology Blog, Professor Racaniello, has called it a “sham.” Indeed, subsequent events have only strengthened the argument against PACE, despite the unconvincing attempts of the investigators and Sir Simon Wessely to counter what they most likely view as my disrespectful and “vexatious” behavior. Virology Blog’s open letters to The Lancet and Psychological Medicine have demonstrated that well-regarded experts from the U.S, U.K. and many other countries find the methodological lapses in PACE to be such egregious violations of standard scientific practice that the reported results cannot be taken seriously. In the last few months, more than a dozen peer-reviewed commentaries in the Journal of Health Psychology, a...
Source: virology blog - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: blogs