Gulf War Illness 25 Years After Desert Storm
In the 25 years since Desert Storm, about 250,000 of the almost 700,000 involved in the Gulf War 1 theater have suffered from some version of the complex of symptoms now called Gulf War Illness. This illness was discussed in a recent symposium co-hosted by the Brookings Institution and Georgetown University Medical Center. While Desert Storm battle casualties were light, military personnel were exposed to various chemical and biological agents. These included Pyridostigmine Bromide, to prevent the effects of nerve gases which had been used previously by Iraq; organophosphate pesticides (such as DEET) which were embedded in...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - August 4, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: Joel Kupersmith and Michael O'Hanlon Tags: Featured Organization and Delivery Public Health Quality Department of Defense desert storm Gulf War Illness Research Veterans Veterans Administration Source Type: blogs

The Simpler Talk Therapy That Treats Depression Effectively
The talk therapy that is quicker (and cheaper) than cognitive-behavioural therapy.   (Source: PsyBlog | Psychology Blog)
Source: PsyBlog | Psychology Blog - July 24, 2016 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Jeremy Dean Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Jul 18, Aaron T. Beck: Today in the History of Psychology (18th July 1921)
Dr. Aaron T. Beck was born. A world renowned pioneer of cognitive therapy (CT) Dr. Beck's prolific body of work consisting of over 600 articles and 25 books has profoundly influenced our understanding of the psychopathology of depression and suicide. Among his many professional accolades, Dr. Aaron T. Beck was cited as 'one of the five most influential psychotherapists of all time' by The American Psychologist and in 1989 he received the American Psychological Association (APA) Distinguished Scientific Award for the Application of Psychology. (Source: Forensic Psychology Blog)
Source: Forensic Psychology Blog - July 18, 2016 Category: Forensic Medicine Source Type: blogs

TWiV 397: Trial by error
Journalism professor David Tuller returns to TWiV for a discussion of the PACE trial for ME/CFS: the many flaws in the trial, why its conclusions are useless, and why the data must be released and re-examined. You can find TWiV #397 at microbe.tv/twiv, or listen below. Click arrow to play Download TWiV 397 (67 MB .mp3, 93 min) Subscribe (free): iTunes, RSS, email, Google Play Music Become a patron of TWiV! (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - July 10, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology adaptive pacing therapy CFS chronic fatigue syndrome clinical trial cognitive behavior therapy graded exercise therapy mecfs myalgic encephalomyeltiis PACE trial Source Type: blogs

Adding mindfulness to the PTSD therapist’s toolkit
—– Soldiers who return home in casts and caskets are not the only ones struck down by the trauma of war. Many young military men and women carry emotional wounds far beyond the battlefield in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This psychologically crippling condition cannot be treated with bandages or surgery, and often lasts for years on end. But new research has now demonstrated that mindfulness—a non-judgmental awareness of our thoughts and feelings—might be a useful tool for veterans battling PTSD. Rather than being stuck in disturbing memories and negative thoughts, they can use mindfulness to ...
Source: SharpBrains - July 7, 2016 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greater Good Magazine Tags: Cognitive Neuroscience Health & Wellness behavior-therapy brain brain-activity exposure therapy meditation mindfulness post-traumatic-stress-disorder psychological Psychology PTSD Source Type: blogs

Values and why they matter in pain management
I’m away from my desk, visiting Auckland this week, so this post will not be in my usual format. Having time away allows me breathing space to think about things (even more than usual), and I’ve been thinking about values and their place in our lives. We all have values, things we believe are important. Values underpin the decisions we make, our priorities, and even the way we interpret events that are usually considered value-free. Value judgements are part of being human, I think. They can be prosocial – or not. When I looked up values, this definition appeared: the regard that something is held to dese...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - July 3, 2016 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: adiemusfree Tags: ACT - Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Chronic pain Clinical reasoning Professional topics Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

An open letter to PLoS One
PLoS One 1160 Battery Street Koshland Building East, Suite 100 San Francisco, CA 94111 Dear PLoS One Editors: In 2012, PLoS One published “Adaptive Pacing, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Graded Exercise, and Specialist Medical Care for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.” This was one in a series of papers highlighting results from the PACE study—the largest trial of treatments for the illness, also known as ME/CFS. Psychologist James Coyne has been seeking data from the study based on PLoS’ open-access policies, an effort we support. However, as David Tuller from the University of California, B...
Source: virology blog - May 23, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Commentary Information chronic fatigue syndrome cognitive behavior therapy data request graded exercise therapy mecfs PACE Source Type: blogs

28% Of Referrals To A Mood & Anxiety Clinic Had Undiagnosed ADHD
This study shows what we adult ADHD coaches have known for a long time. Only 5% of adults have ADHD. But, 28.4% of referrals to a tertiary-care mood and anxiety clinic had undetected ADHD. ADHD was also diagnosed in 22.6% of patients referred to the clinic for treatment-resistant depression. Chart of study SSRI Treatment Response may Predict Undetected Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in Depressed Patients. Adults who fail to respond to antidepressant therapy may have underlying attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and not treatment-resistant depression, as is often assumed, new research sugges...
Source: Adult ADD Strengths - May 1, 2016 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Pete Quily Tags: ADD / ADHD Medication ADD / ADHD Treatment adult ADHD anxiety depression dysthymia misdiagnosed undiagnosed Source Type: blogs

An open letter to The Lancet, again
On November 13th, five colleagues and I released an open letter to The Lancet and editor Richard Horton about the PACE trial, which the journal published in 2011. The study’s reported findings–that cognitive behavior therapy and graded exercise therapy are effective treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome–have had enormous influence on clinical guidelines for the illness. Last October, Virology Blog published David Tuller’s investigative report on the PACE study’s indefensible methodological lapses. Citing these problems, we noted in the letter that “such flaws have no place in publis...
Source: virology blog - February 11, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information chronic fatigue syndrome Lancet mecfs myalgic encephalomyelitis PACE request for data Richard Horton vexations Source Type: blogs

Reexamining Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research And Treatment Policy
In recent months, two developments have provided some degree of optimism to people with the illness variously called chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis (“inflammation of the brain and central nervous system, with muscle pain”), CFS/ME, and ME/CFS — the term often used these days by U.S. agencies. Taken together, these developments herald the welcome possibility of significant changes in research and treatment policies for the illness, which is estimated to afflict between 1 and 2.5 million people in the U.S. They also reinforce a critical but often overlooked point: patients can possess far more ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 4, 2016 Category: Health Management Authors: David Tuller Tags: Drugs and Medical Technology Equity and Disparities Featured Hospitals Public Health Quality chronic fatigue syndrome NIH PACE trial Research Source Type: blogs

TBT: Addiction and the Different Types of the Treatment Programs
Given all the recent news on drug use and addiction we thought this post that talks about addiction and the different types of treatment programs would be a good refresher. October may have officially been named Substance Abuse Prevention month, but addiction treatment is an ongoing battle that lasts throughout the entire year. Recognizing the signs of addiction and knowing where and when to get help are vital tools that everyone should keep in their arsenal. Unfortunately, few people recognize the signs of addiction or know where to get help, which in turn can prolong the amount of time an addict may go without addressing...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - January 21, 2016 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Trial By Error, Continued: More Nonsense from The Lancet Psychiatry
By David Tuller, DrPH David Tuller is academic coordinator of the concurrent masters degree program in public health and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.   The PACE authors have long demonstrated great facility in evading questions they don’t want to answer. They did this in their response to correspondence about the original 2011 Lancet paper. They did it again in the correspondence about the 2013 recovery paper, and in their response to my Virology Blog series. Now they have done it in their answer to critics of their most recent paper on follow-up data, published last October in The Lancet ...
Source: virology blog - January 19, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Commentary Information chronic fatigue syndrome GET graded exercise therapy Lancet mecfs Michael Sharpe myalgic encephalomyelitis PACE trial Source Type: blogs

Trial By Error, Continued: Did the PACE Trial Really Prove that Graded Exercise Is Safe?
By Julie Rehmeyer and David Tuller, DrPH Julie Rehmeyer is a journalist and Ted Scripps Environmental Journalism Fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who has written extensively about ME/CFS. David Tuller is academic coordinator of the concurrent masters degree program in public health and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Joining me for this episode of our ongoing saga is my friend and colleague Julie Rehmeyer. In my initial series, I only briefly touched on the PACE trial’s blanket claim of safety. Here we examine this key aspect of the study in more detail, which is complicated and r...
Source: virology blog - January 7, 2016 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Commentary Information chronic fatigue syndrome GET graded exercise therapy Lancet mecfs Michael Sharpe myalgic encephalomyelitis PACE trial Tom Kindlon Source Type: blogs

Revisiting the PLoS One economics analysis of PACE
On October 23rd, virology blog published the third installment of David Tuller’s investigative report about the PACE study of treatments for ME/CFS. In the post, Dr. Tuller demonstrated that the key finding of an economic analysis of the PACE trial, published in PLoS One in 2012, was almost certainly false. The finding–that cognitive behavior therapy and graded exercise therapy were cost-effective treatments–relied on an inaccuracy in the paper about whether the results of sensitivity analyses were “robust.” Since the publication of the virology blog series, the PACE study has come under susta...
Source: virology blog - December 22, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information Commentary chronic fatigue syndrome mecfs david tuller PACE myalgic encepalomyelitis James Crowe freedom of information request vexatious Source Type: blogs

Trial by error, Continued: PACE Team’s Work for Insurance Companies Is “Not Related” to PACE. Really?
By David Tuller, DrPH David Tuller is academic coordinator of the concurrent masters degree program in public health and journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In my initial story on Virology Blog, I charged the PACE investigators with violating the Declaration of Helsinki, developed in the 1950s by the World Medical Association to protect human research subjects. The declaration mandates that scientists disclose “institutional affiliations” and “any possible conflicts of interest” to prospective trial participants as part of the process of obtaining informed consent. The investigators promised in th...
Source: virology blog - November 17, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: Information adaptive pacing therapy CFS chronic fatigue syndrome clinical trial cognitive behaviour therapy Declaration of Helsinki graded exercise therapy insurance company mecfs PACE specialist medical care The Lancet Source Type: blogs