Journal of IiME Volume 5 Issue 1 (May 2011) The Involvement of the PACE Trial Principal Investigators and the Director of the Clinical Trials Unit with the Department for Work and Pensions continued and will eventually be seen by most as having been dead on arrival and a complete waste of money: Zombie therapies based upon Zombie science. Moreover, I believe that most of the PACE Principal Investigators actually know this. If so, my third question is what then could be the real purpose of PACE? Professor Charlton's following observation seems to me to answer that question perfectly: "If zombie science is not scientifically-useable – what is its function? In a nutshell, zombie science is supported because it is useful propaganda to be deployed in arenas such as political rhetoric, public administration, management, public relations, marketing and the mass media generally. It persuades, it constructs taboos, it buttresses some kind of rhetorical attempt to shape mass opinion. Indeed, zombie science often comes across in the mass media as being more plausible than real science; and it is precisely the superficial face-plausibility which is the sole and sufficient purpose of zombie science." In my opinion PACE is an issue for more than just ME patients. It is an affront to British science and to British society. ENDNOTES: [1] Comparison of adaptive pacing therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, graded exercise therapy, and specialist medical care for chronic fatigue syndrome (PACE): a randomised trial; PD White et al; published online, The Lancet, February 18, 2011 DOI:10.1016/S01406736(11)60096-2. [2] For example, a recent large scale randomised controlled trial demonstrated exactly that: Núñez M, Fernández-Solà J, Nunez E, Fernandez-Huerta JM, Godás-Sieso T, GomezInvest in ME (Charity Nr. 1114035) The Enterovirus Foundation was founded in November 2008 and is a non-profit organisation created to fund research to discover the persistent effects of enteroviruses, to determine the role they play in both acute and chronic disease, and to develop treatments to cure and prevent these diseases. More details at - www.enterovirusfoundation.org www.investinme.org Page 44/58 Gil E. (2011) Health-related quality of life in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: group cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise versus usual treatment. A randomised controlled trial with 1 year of follow-up. Clinical Rheumatology. 2011 Jan 15. (E-publication ahead of print). [3] As Professor Komaroff rightly stated back in 2006: “…there are now over 4,000 published studies that show underlying biomedical abnormalities in patients with this illness. It‟s not an illness that people can simply imagine that they have and it‟s not a psychological illness. In my view, that debate, which has waged for 20 years, should now be over.” Professor Anthony Komaroff, Harvard Medical School: Speaking at the USA Government CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) press conference on 3 November 2006: http://www.cdc.gov/media/transcripts/t06110 3.htm
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