Was advice for people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome all wrong?

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    Science writer and editor Julie Rehmeyer. (Courtesy of Julie Rehmeyer)

    Science writer and editor Julie Rehmeyer. (Courtesy of Julie Rehmeyer)

    The way doctors treat different illnesses is guided – and often changed pretty dramatically – by research. But – what if the research studies that inform the course of treatment prove to be wrong?

    With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a highly influential research study, which was originally published in “The Lancet” in 2011, now appears to have been based on flawed science. This comes after the researchers were court-ordered to release their original data.

    In this edition of our series “Patient Files” we hear from Julie Rehmeyer, she’s a freelance science writer in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who just wrote about this flawed study for STAT News, but also has a very personal connection to this story. Rehmeyer has a memoir coming out next Spring, titled “Through the Shadowlands: A Science Writer’s Odyssey Into an Illness Science Doesn’t Understand.” 

    Cally Carswell produced this story.

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