Why the threat of psychosocial reductionism to patients in psychiatry and medicine is rather ignored As a psychiatrist housebound by long COVID (LC) now specializing in post-acute infection syndromes (PAIS), I read the essay by Pollak titled ‘Why inflammat

or knowledge about how these 'psychiatric diagnoses' are implemented.

But it seems that has happened (yet again).

That's a shame.

academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

In general they're too uninformed,

and too often shrowded in and defended by good intentions, of which people don't realize the danger.

The 'bodymind' concept and idiom of distress-talk precisely remains the problem.

You can't write on this topic without a decent critique of the BPS-model,

As a psychiatrist and patient who is specialized in PAIS, the biomedical but also the BPS/philosophical side,

I can confidently say it's better to keep classic psychiatry and social science views at a distance.

Views that, intentionally or not, often are in line with the purported relevance of the academic's field in question.

Stuff that has been addressed and debunked countless of times already.

Like the lazy 'reductionist' critique of the biomed model for instance.

It'd also be great for you to next time consider asking feedback from people like Elke, or other patients who are also experts on content.

Although I think the book is a good start, her review suggests you haven't been able to avoid the classic straw mans we often see in social amd BPS sciences.

Have you ever heard of the concept of the narcissistic collusion?

Long COVID needs real therapeutics: time to move past disproven approaches

Here is our Rapid Response to that hugely problematic BMJ review of treatments for #LongCovid

Delighted to have contributed with @ellecarnitine.bsky.social, @fvrhijn.bsky.social, @lauravictorine.bsky.social, and Xandra Westerhuis

We need to learn from the history of #MECFS

When We Don’t Have All the Answers: Long COVID and the Need for Humility in Medicine

„How can we be sure we are not gaslighting our patients? By remaining humble.“

Sehr guter Artikel einer betroffenen Ärztin über die nötige Haltung von Mediziner*innen gegenüber Patient*innen mit #LC, #MECFS, #PCVS et al.

Anbei ein paar Zitate: 🧵
1/8

Doctors as Patients (with subtitles) YouTube video by Anil about ME

Artsen kunnen ook #ME, #Lyme of #longCOVID krijgen.
@anilvanderzee.bsky.social vroeg me als cameraman-interviewer mee te werken aan deze documentaire.

Dr. Laura de Vries vertelde me openhartig over haar studie en ziekte. Ze heeft ME, hetzelfde dat mijn zus Céline had.

youtu.be/J0ywwLIfH_w?...

Dank, wat goed!

En ook andere 'post'-virale aandoeningen op de slide zie ik.

Ik hoop dat de term ME/CVS ook genoemd is.

Het is hoog tijd dat we bij het begin van het verhaal beginnen als we deze patiëntengroepen willen helpen.

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social

As long as (seemingly) left-leaning media, clinicians and researchers rather feel good about their intentions and themselves,

than take a look in the mirror,

they'll keep doing the pts they claim to help a disservice.

Naivete hidden under a narcissistic shell.

Perverse.

5/5

Right-wingers love it too.

While the left keeps infighting,

they let 'holistic thinkers' medicalize social factors.

Not only to let ill people 'take more responsibility' and thus cut disability,

but to cut other social support by making it a medical responsibility.

4/5

Mostly by clinicians and researchers from the 'frontline of psychosomatic illness' who never attended a philosophy class,

but use the terms 'reductionism', 'dualism' and 'Cartesian' as ideologically motivated tropes.

Nonsense veiled under pseudo-intellectualized rhetoric.

3/5

Left-leaning media platform this 'cause they prefer the idea of the environment and psyche being underestimated,

rather than to face hubris and the unknown.

While complaining about 'biomed reductionism',

all sensible critique is reduced to just that (projection).

2/5

The number of people with chronic conditions is soaring. Are we less healthy than we used to be – or overdiagnosing illness? Are ordinary life experiences, bodily imperfections and normal differences being unnecessarily pathologised? One doctor argues just that

Another gem @theguardian.com

The ever marginalized @paulgarnerwoof.bsky.social is (again) given a podium to conflate (his own) primary psych disorders with LC.

A feat expected from this author,

a 'psychosomatic' neurologist who's made similar mistakes.

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
1/5

This is deeply shocking and disturbing, the opposite of scientific good practice. As I see it, a group of diehards promoting a discredited treatment (exercise "therapy" for ME/CFS patients) are seeking to stifle medical progress - to protect their reputations. And Cochrane has kowtowed to them. 🧵

Documentary “Hirschhausen & the Long Shadow of the Pandemic” now on YouTube with English subtitles. Footage from the #UniteToFight2024 conference @unitetofight.bsky.social @virusesimmunity.bsky.social & International ME/CFS Day @scheibenbogen.bsky.social

t.co/XvNHvrnsPp

Goed verhaal.

Toch weer meer bewijs dat NL bullshitjobtopia is.

En dat in combinatie met part-timekampioen zijn, wat dit soort keuzes alleen maar aanmoedigt.

Een overweging die ik een beetje mis in het artikel.

De neutrale toehoorder zal die indruk sneller krijgen omdat ze in de beeldvorming van dit soort dicussies door media vaak al als voorbeeld worden genomen.

Die nuance is sneller aan dovemansoren gericht als het halve gesprek over dat voorbeeld gaat.

Ben nog benieuwd naar die opvulzorgstudies!

Update on ‘Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome’

Cochrane’s decision to not update the erroneous 2017 exercise in ME/CFS systematic review is here, citing inadequate resources and insufficient new research. Of course, how you find and grade the research without finding and grading it seems very un-Cochrane to me. www.cochrane.org/news/update-...

En ik vroeg me af - in het geval van een versplinterd machtsveld - is er ook een voorbeeld te noemen waarbij het niet het personeel (of de dokters) zijn die dwars liggen?

Of geldt dat 'zichzelf niet ontslaan' - in een tijd van tekorten aan zorgpersoneel - alleen voor hen?

He Xander,

Heb je een studie met data over die opvulzorg?

Int geval van radiologen,

gaan die hun collega's dan allemaal adviseren onzindiagnostiek aan te vragen?

Want dat doen ze niet zelf he.

Dat denk ik ook. En leuk al die 'technische innovaties' op het vlak van diagnostiek en 'AI'.

Maar daar zit het personeelstekort natuurlijk niet.

Laat Philips maar eerst aantonen dat ze veilige producten maken.

Ik denk niet dat ze meegaan naar de tuchtrechter als AI een fout advies geeft.

Another is that the 'control group' had twice as much PT, reas GET, than the CBT-group.

That MID calculation for CIS seems dubious at best. They averaged a literature value with a calculated one based on data from a study that was not designed to give an MID. Big surprise that averaging them really brought down the threshold MID in the meta-analysis so they could say it was achieved.

Maybe why exercise isn't a panacea for dysautonomia is because of unrecognized PEM/PENE in that population. And the reason some people with apparent PEM/PENE respond exercise is because it's working on some level for dysautonomia--but potentially at the expense of the rest of the clinical picture.