Pain Reprocessing Therapy
In a trial of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), 2/3 of patients with chronic low back pain reported significant pain relief with psychotherapy that helped them reconceptualize the pain as nondangerous. Impressive if true, but flaws in research design make the study untrustworthy.
Columbia University finally cuts ties with America’s Quack Dr. Oz
Decades after Dr. Oz pioneered "integrating" quackery into medicine and after many years of promoting diet scams and quackery on a nationally syndicated daily television show, Columbia University appears finally to have had enough and has quietly downgraded his status. What took so long?
The CDC and WHO Have Reported an Unusual Cluster of Severe Pediatric Hepatitis Cases
An unusual cluster of severe liver disease in children is being reported around the world. The cause isn't entirely clear, but it may be an uncommon presentation of a common viral infection that isn't COVID-19.
The search for long COVID treatments
What are current treatments for long COVID, and are they effective?
Emotional Freedom Technique – Acupuncture for the Mind
Emotional Freedom Technique is based in pseudoscience and inadequate clinical research.
Patients Who Deceive
Loren Pankratz's book Patients Who Deceive covers the whole spectrum of different kinds of deception. It is well written, informative, and entertaining, with case examples that read like detective stories.
Scientific review articles as antivaccine disinformation
Antivaxxers have always written dubious scientific review articles to try to make their wild speculations about vaccine science seem credible. Usually such articles wind up in bottom-feeding journals. Unfortunately a recent pseudo-review article was published by an Elsevier journal, making it seem more credible when it isn't.
Normalizing Dead Children
Pediatric fatalities from both guns and COVID could be greatly reduced if more people simply cared.
Paralyzed Patient Communicates with Brain Implant
Brain-machine interfaces continue to advance.
A Farewell Note
Au revoir, but not forever!