#chalder — Public Fediverse posts

Claims Built on Fraudulent Trials Should Be Ignored

By David Tuller, DrPH When researchers cite fraudulent studies in support of their claims, it is best not to take anything they write at face value. That is certainly the case with a recent paper titled “Persistent physical symptoms not explained by structural abnormalities or disease processes: a primary care approach to promote recovery,” published earlier this month in the Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care. (I use “fraudulent” here not in the legal sense but in the sense of “deceptive” or “deceitful.”) As evidence of something or other, the paper’s references include both the fraudulent PACE trial, whose reported findings have been discredited and rejected by leading medical authorities, and a fraudulent pediatric trial of the Lightning Process, in which the investigators violated core methodological principles of scientific research. (The Lightning Process, a woo-woo “brain retraining” program, was created by osteopath and former spiritual healer Phil Parker, who once claimed to be able to diagnose people’s ailments by stepping into their bodies for a look-see.) The Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care has emerged as something of a house organ for members of the biopsychosocial ideological brigades, including prominent non-Nordic fellow travelers like Professor Paul Garner and Professor Trudie Chalder. (The former is the corresponding author of this paper; the latter is one of multiple co-authors.) Both were also co-authors of a similarly misguided document published by the same journal In 2023–a manifesto from the self-styled Oslo Chronic Fatigue Consortium called “Chronic fatigue syndromes: real illnesses that people can recover from.” The new paper’s goal is to offer primary care physicians a short summary of “contemporary theories of PPS” along with purported “evidence-informed pathways” for treating patients. The research involved a “narrative literature review and consensus development with experienced practitioners.” In other words, the paper presents the beliefs, opinions and …

https://trialbyerror.org/2026/04/01/claims-built-on-fraudulent-trials-should-be-ignored/

Claims Built on Fraudulent Trials Should Be Ignored

By David Tuller, DrPH When researchers cite fraudulent studies in support of their claims, it is best not to take anything they write at face value. That is certainly the case with a recent paper titled “Persistent physical symptoms not explained by structural abnormalities or disease processes: a primary care approach to promote recovery,” published earlier this month in the Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care. (I use “fraudulent” here not in the legal sense but in the sense of “deceptive” or “deceitful.”) As evidence of something or other, the paper’s references include both the fraudulent PACE trial, whose reported findings have been discredited and rejected by leading medical authorities, and a fraudulent pediatric trial of the Lightning Process, in which the investigators violated core methodological principles of scientific research. (The Lightning Process, a woo-woo “brain retraining” program, was created by osteopath and former spiritual healer Phil Parker, who once claimed to be able to diagnose people’s ailments by stepping into their bodies for a look-see.) The Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care has emerged as something of a house organ for members of the biopsychosocial ideological brigades, including prominent non-Nordic fellow travelers like Professor Paul Garner and Professor Trudie Chalder. (The former is the corresponding author of this paper; the latter is one of multiple co-authors.) Both were also co-authors of a similarly misguided document published by the same journal In 2023–a manifesto from the self-styled Oslo Chronic Fatigue Consortium called “Chronic fatigue syndromes: real illnesses that people can recover from.” The new paper’s goal is to offer primary care physicians a short summary of “contemporary theories of PPS” along with purported “evidence-informed pathways” for treating patients. The research involved a “narrative literature review and consensus development with experienced practitioners.” In other words, the paper presents the beliefs, opinions and …

https://trialbyerror.org/2026/04/01/claims-built-on-fraudulent-trials-should-be-ignored/

Claims Built on Fraudulent Trials Should Be Ignored

By David Tuller, DrPH When researchers cite fraudulent studies in support of their claims, it is best not to take anything they write at face value. That is certainly the case with a recent paper titled “Persistent physical symptoms not explained by structural abnormalities or disease processes: a primary care approach to promote recovery,” published earlier this month in the Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care. (I use “fraudulent” here not in the legal sense but in the sense of “deceptive” or “deceitful.”) As evidence of something or other, the paper’s references include both the fraudulent PACE trial, whose reported findings have been discredited and rejected by leading medical authorities, and a fraudulent pediatric trial of the Lightning Process, in which the investigators violated core methodological principles of scientific research. (The Lightning Process, a woo-woo “brain retraining” program, was created by osteopath and former spiritual healer Phil Parker, who once claimed to be able to diagnose people’s ailments by stepping into their bodies for a look-see.) The Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care has emerged as something of a house organ for members of the biopsychosocial ideological brigades, including prominent non-Nordic fellow travelers like Professor Paul Garner and Professor Trudie Chalder. (The former is the corresponding author of this paper; the latter is one of multiple co-authors.) Both were also co-authors of a similarly misguided document published by the same journal In 2023–a manifesto from the self-styled Oslo Chronic Fatigue Consortium called “Chronic fatigue syndromes: real illnesses that people can recover from.” The new paper’s goal is to offer primary care physicians a short summary of “contemporary theories of PPS” along with purported “evidence-informed pathways” for treating patients. The research involved a “narrative literature review and consensus development with experienced practitioners.” In other words, the paper presents the beliefs, opinions and …

https://trialbyerror.org/2026/04/01/claims-built-on-fraudulent-trials-should-be-ignored/

Claims Built on Fraudulent Trials Should Be Ignored

By David Tuller, DrPH When researchers cite fraudulent studies in support of their claims, it is best not to take anything they write at face value. That is certainly the case with a recent paper titled “Persistent physical symptoms not explained by structural abnormalities or disease processes: a primary care approach to promote recovery,” published earlier this month in the Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care. (I use “fraudulent” here not in the legal sense but in the sense of “deceptive” or “deceitful.”) As evidence of something or other, the paper’s references include both the fraudulent PACE trial, whose reported findings have been discredited and rejected by leading medical authorities, and a fraudulent pediatric trial of the Lightning Process, in which the investigators violated core methodological principles of scientific research. (The Lightning Process, a woo-woo “brain retraining” program, was created by osteopath and former spiritual healer Phil Parker, who once claimed to be able to diagnose people’s ailments by stepping into their bodies for a look-see.) The Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care has emerged as something of a house organ for members of the biopsychosocial ideological brigades, including prominent non-Nordic fellow travelers like Professor Paul Garner and Professor Trudie Chalder. (The former is the corresponding author of this paper; the latter is one of multiple co-authors.) Both were also co-authors of a similarly misguided document published by the same journal In 2023–a manifesto from the self-styled Oslo Chronic Fatigue Consortium called “Chronic fatigue syndromes: real illnesses that people can recover from.” The new paper’s goal is to offer primary care physicians a short summary of “contemporary theories of PPS” along with purported “evidence-informed pathways” for treating patients. The research involved a “narrative literature review and consensus development with experienced practitioners.” In other words, the paper presents the beliefs, opinions and …

https://trialbyerror.org/2026/04/01/claims-built-on-fraudulent-trials-should-be-ignored/

Claims Built on Fraudulent Trials Should Be Ignored

By David Tuller, DrPH When researchers cite fraudulent studies in support of their claims, it is best not to take anything they write at face value. That is certainly the case with a recent paper titled “Persistent physical symptoms not explained by structural abnormalities or disease processes: a primary care approach to promote recovery,” published earlier this month in the Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care. (I use “fraudulent” here not in the legal sense but in the sense of “deceptive” or “deceitful.”) As evidence of something or other, the paper’s references include both the fraudulent PACE trial, whose reported findings have been discredited and rejected by leading medical authorities, and a fraudulent pediatric trial of the Lightning Process, in which the investigators violated core methodological principles of scientific research. (The Lightning Process, a woo-woo “brain retraining” program, was created by osteopath and former spiritual healer Phil Parker, who once claimed to be able to diagnose people’s ailments by stepping into their bodies for a look-see.) The Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care has emerged as something of a house organ for members of the biopsychosocial ideological brigades, including prominent non-Nordic fellow travelers like Professor Paul Garner and Professor Trudie Chalder. (The former is the corresponding author of this paper; the latter is one of multiple co-authors.) Both were also co-authors of a similarly misguided document published by the same journal In 2023–a manifesto from the self-styled Oslo Chronic Fatigue Consortium called “Chronic fatigue syndromes: real illnesses that people can recover from.” The new paper’s goal is to offer primary care physicians a short summary of “contemporary theories of PPS” along with purported “evidence-informed pathways” for treating patients. The research involved a “narrative literature review and consensus development with experienced practitioners.” In other words, the paper presents the beliefs, opinions and …

https://trialbyerror.org/2026/04/01/claims-built-on-fraudulent-trials-should-be-ignored/