Dr Charles Shepherd, Hon. Medical Advisor to the MEA has signed a letter written by Dr David Tuller to Cochrane’s Editor-in-Chief regarding their refusal to withdraw the review, “Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.”
Summary
- In December 2024, Cochrane decided not to update the review ‘Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome' and confirmed it would remain unchanged.
- Dr. David Tuller has written a letter to Cochrane's Editor-in-Chief requesting the review be removed, citing concerns over its outdated and flawed content.
- The letter, signed by medical professionals including Dr. Charles Shepherd, Hon. Medical Advisor MEA, highlighted that the review inadequately addressed potential harms and posed a risk to people with ME/CFS and Long COVID.
In 2019, Cochrane announced that it would be reassessing and updating the harmful review, ‘Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.' Five years on, in December 2024, they released a statement saying they were no longer going to be updating the review and that it would remain as is.
Dr David Tuller, who runs the Trial By Error blog, has written a letter to Cochrane's Editor-in-Chief asking them to remove the outdate review ‘Exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome.' Dr Charles Shepherd, alongside numerous other medical professionals in the ME/CFS community, have added their signatures to this letter.
Dr David Tuller's Letter: Extracts
The promise to update the amended review had nothing to do with the presence or absence of new research. Cochrane committed to the update project because the organization’s leadership understood that the published review was inadequate for multiple reasons, among them that it contained limited information about potential harms. Despite having articulated such concerns in the past, Cochrane has now reaffirmed its support for this flawed document while revising nothing but the date of publication.
The amended exercise therapy review continues to pose a risk to people with ME/CFS, including those with Long COVID who meet diagnostic criteria. It should be withdrawn. Failing that, the review should be prominently tagged with an editorial note making clear that it is out-of-date and should not be used for clinical decision-making.
Dr Charles Shepherd Comments:
I have signed this letter to the editor in chief at Cochrane regarding their seriously flawed review of exercise therapy for people with ME/CFS.
The letter was organised by my colleague David Tuller and was also signed by Drs Keith Geraghty, Binita Kane, Nigel Speight and William Weir and Professors Nicola Baker, Jonathan Edwards and Chris Ponting from the UK.
Dr Charles Shepherd,
Trustee and Hon. Medical Adviser to the ME Association,
Member of the 2018-2021 NICE guideline on ME/CFS committee,
Member of the 2002 Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on ME/CFS
Petition to Cochrane
Since 2023, there has been an open Change.org petition to Cochrane, asking them to withdraw this harmful review. You can sign the petition here: