I am thrilled to announce that @Milanobaidi and I just signed a deal with Cambridge University Press to edit the first Handbook of the Psychology of Violent Extremism. 28 chapters will be contributed by many of the most esteemed & upcoming researchers in the field. 1/ The handbook will provide a thorough introduction to the most important concepts and definitions, including historical and methodological developments. It will then present and discuss major drivers of violent extremism at different levels of analyses and their intersection. 2/

🚨 A new analysis and large-scale scientific collaboration estimates the global number of #LongCovid patients in 2020 and 2021 to 144.7 million. The level of disability is comparable to moderately severe traumatic brain injury. 2.7% risk in children.🧵 1/ medrxiv.org/content/10.110… This corresponds to a total risk 3.69% among all infections and 6.17% of all symptomatic cases. Three disease clusters were identified: fatigue 51.0%, respiratory 60.4%, and cognitive 35.4%. These clusters partly or fully overlapped in 38.4% of the patients. 2/

🚨The so far largest meta-analysis of more than 1.5 million infected individuals puts the global prevalence of #LongCovid at 43%. Some additional key findings. 🧵
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35429399/
1/ #LongCovid was more prevalent among hospitalized (54%) than non-hospitalized individuals (34%). Despite these average estimates, it is important to note that large variations were observed between studies.
2/

🚨UPDATE: Numbers speak louder than words. 3 months ago, I provided an overview of the estimated prevalence of #LongCovid and new #MECFS cases based on infection data. Here are the updated "worst 20" countries in absolute numbers today.🧵
1/ This calculation assumes that "only" 25% of all infected develop Long Covid and 5% of these get MECFS. Note: Vaccines may have reduced the number of new cases, which is why these estimates are on the conservative side. The actual % may be higher. 2/
frontiersin.org/articles/10.33…

Another study seems to suggest that people with #LongCovid suffer from PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Let me walk you through why we need to be very careful when interpreting the results of this or similar studies. 1/🧵
mental.jmir.org/2022/2/e33704 Let's start with PTSD. The authors used the Trauma Screening Questionnaire to assess it. While some of its 10 questions indeed are related to traumatic events, others are not.

2/

We need urgent action against the wave of #LongCovid and #MECFS cases that is hitting societies around the world! If "only" 25% of all infected develop LC and 5% of these get MECFS, millions will become permanently disabled. This is the "worst 20" in absolute numbers today.🧵
1/ Obviously, the number of cases is increasing dramatically due to the #omicron variant that falsely is perceived to be harmless. Moreover, new research suggests that people in all age groups can get #LongCovid, children included. Thus, numbers will increase *a lot*.
2/

History will judge the few who continue to promote outdated psychological disease models for physical conditions such as #MECFS and #LongCovid. It will not be the first time. Let me briefly put things in historical perspective.
1/ First off, humans have an inherent tendency to search for explanations for anything. Medical professionals are no exception and this does not come as a surprise. Their valuable work precisely deals with finding the causes of various conditions.
2/

We should admire the psychologists and psychiatrist who work relentlessly to help those living with mental conditions. But we are also obliged to speak out on the failures and injustices that have been committed in the name of psychology/psychiatry. No matter how you put it...
/1 The psychologization of #MECFS and now #LongCovid are among the biggest medical scandals of the past 50 years. Millions have been hurt and gaslighted. In the future, not a single individual should have to go through what they had to endure.
2/

One thing that keeps many people with #MECFS alive is the hope and trust that science will finally find a treatment for their disease. Hang in there! While a cure is yet to be found, there has never been as much research on the disease as today (see figure below). 1/ Of course, not every article containing the term focuses specifically on the disease. However, it shows that awareness is increasing substantially. Over the pandemic (2019-2022), the number of studies mentioning the disease has more than doubled. In science, that is big! 2/

A new systematic review and meta-analysis of 13 studies and 760,474 participants looked into how COVID19 news consumption via social and traditional media is related to our mental health. This is what they found. 1/🧵
sciencedirect.com/science/articl… Whereas COVID19 news consumption via social media was consistently linked to worse mental health outcomes, this link was less clear for news consumption via traditional media. 2/

For almost two decades, the "PACE" trial has misguided the treatment of people with #MECFS based on highly questionably and invalid research. Today, the UK health authorities acknowledged the flawed body of evidence, abandoning the recommendation of Graded Exercise Therapy. 1/

https://twitter.com/KunstJonas/status/1382407699414061058

The hallmark symptom of MECFS is that patients get *much* worse after physical exertion. Moreover, large patient surveys show that programs that require them to gradually increase their physical activities do not improve their condition but often lead to a permanent worsening. 2/

Due to weak to very weak quality of evidence, CBT and GET are no longer recommended for the treatment of people with ME by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the UK. The era of the "biopsychosocial" model is seeing its end. The reasons... 1/

https://twitter.com/TimesONeill/status/1427555327734685700

..are clear and need no further elaboration: For the past decades, proponents of the idea that people can treat or even cure ME through psychotherapy or graded exercise have failed to show that these treatments perform better than placebo. 2/

Another unblinded CBT trial from Chalder, who is known for her methodologically-disputed work on CFS, finding no effect on primary outcomes among people with "medically unexplained symptoms." Some effects are observed on secondary outcomes, but... 1/

https://twitter.com/davidtuller1/status/1406335507953422336

correction for multiple comparisons was not applied. The authors state: "Throughout this paper, we present unadjusted p-values. Methods for adjusting the family-wise error by methods such as the Bonferroni correction are known to be conservative..." 2/

No matter how esteemed a scholar is, a personal post-hoc explanation for why oneself recovered from a given disease remains what it is: post-hoc speculation with negligible scientific value. At the same time, if this speculation proves wrong, the consequences can be fatal. 1/

https://twitter.com/PaulGarnerWoof/status/1377195611854934019

For instance, adhering to unproven treatments can in the case of serious diseases such as cancer lead to a manifold risk of death. jamanetwork.com/journals/jamao… 2/

Historically, medical conditions that disproportionally affect women have falsely been attributed to psychological causes, often referred to with euphemism such as "biopsychological". Yet I am shocked to read this about #longcovid in 2020! 1/

link.springer.com/article/10.100… In addition to reflecting implicit sexism and being unwarranted by the data, such conclusions
- gaslight patients to believe it is "all in their head"
- direct research away from the search for treatable biological causes
- bias medical practitioners in their assessment
2/

Scientific understandings of diseases have never been static but always subject to change and revision. Often, big scientific leaps take place in times of crisis. My prediction is that the wave of #LongCovid-19 will fundamentally change how we view post-viral conditions. 1/ I believe that the “cognitive era” of post-viral conditions will find its end rather soon. That is not to say that CBT won’t have its place in the treatment of patients. It can be crucial in helping them cope with their illness. But it cannot solve its physical causes. 2/

For decades, post-viral physical symptoms have been trivialized as psychological. Based on shaky empirical grounds, people have been left with CBT as their only treatment option. Now it is COVID19 long haulers’ time to be told “it’s all in their heads.” #LongCovid #covid1in20 1/ Many of those infected by COVID19 don’t fully recover and physicians call for research into the causes, which we currently know very little about. However, some psychotherapists have already attributed it to long haulers being “more prone to distress” shorturl.at/wLSYZ 2/