Tom Molmans, MD

Correction: I used the wrong tag for sense for science (they only seem active on Twitter/X). My apologies to @standupforscience.net that are fighting an important fight against anti-scientific sentiments OUTSIDE of science, and do not hand out awards ;).

Tom Molmans, MD@molbaas.bsky.social

A well-known psychosomatic and functional proponent of Long Covid in France, has been nominated for the Maddox Prize 2026 from an institution claiming to 'stand up for science and evidence', @standupforscience.net and which is supported by @royalsociety.org 1-6 senseaboutscience.org/activities/mad…

kwakzalverij.nlGebroeders Bruinsma-Erepenning 2018 voor prof. dr. J.W.M. van der MeerDe Gebroeders Bruinsma Erepenning 2018 wordt op 6 oktober uitgereikt aan prof. J.W.M. van der Meer.

Similarly, the Dutch anti-quackery association in 2018 awarded a Dutch prof of internal medicine, and defendant of the PACE-trial, a prize for his important work AGAINST the 'quackery illness CFS'. Let's hope it doesn't come this far this time. 6-6 www.kwakzalverij.nl/nieuws/gebro...

@georgemonbiot.bsky.social, @davetuller1.bsky.social

Although there are a lot more nominees, people deservant of a prize that recognizes scientific work in the eye of resistance, ask yourself: how often does effective resistance come from patients or the common man, and not large corporations, institutions or government? 4-6

Too often 'science' celebrates in a self-congratulatory way, instead of discerning between where 'the resistance' really comes from: from within or without? In suppressed science, broad institutional, corporate and governmental support is more often a 🚩 than not. 5-6

'The 2026 shortlist includes eight individuals from around the world whose courage and persistence in promoting or defending evidence despite facing obstacles have had significant real-world impact.' This person hasn't won yet, but it's not the 1st time that Calimero... 2-6

...behaviour defending reputations and poor science - that have dominated a field for for half a century - is deemed 'heroic'. Many also British institutions seem to loathe the idea of polarization more, than it being an excuse not to ascertain truth. Flagrant stuff. 3-6

An example of how many German 'expertise centers' are psychosomatic strongholds. The appropriation - and subsequent overdiagnosis - of PEM is pathognomonic. As are the red flags 🚩: fatigue, CFS, chalder fatigue scale, PHQ-15, 1-3

ME/CFS Science@mecfsscience.org

1) Data from five German university hospitals shows that the DSQ-PEM for post-exertional malaise scaled with fatigue and overall symptom burden. Although CFS and Long Covid patients scored the highest, patients with chronic pain, cancer and MS also had increased scores.

It's funny they found a lower prevalence of 'anxiety' in LC patients compared to the other cohorts, as this has always been the go-to symptom for their predictive processing narrative. But not to worry, they'll keep spreading it anyway. Let's quit spreading it for them! 3-3

Source:

ME/CFS Science@mecfsscience.org

GAD-7, IOM-criteria, predictive processing, persistent somatic symptoms, transdiagnostic and trans-symtpomatic perspectives, 'multidimensional', and while stating they can't infer causation, underlining the relevance of 'functional' models, that don't care for it. 2-3

The whitewashing continues as ideologues 'heroically' address the 'stigma' they themselves created, simultaneously victimizing themselves to their support base. It's Don Quixote meets Calimero. Don Calimero? Don Calixote? Don Quiximero? 1-4

ME/CFS Science@mecfsscience.org

1) 🇫🇷 France' public health insurance Ameli has updated its info on ME/CFS including sections critical of graded exercise and CBT. In this article, however, proponents of psychosomatic medicine explain how they pushed back to get some of the language changed.

the anti dualism/pro mind-body zealotism, the falsely balanced message of 'symmetrical uncertainty communication', the appropriation of the 'stigma' discussion, and the reiteration of the importance of nocebo-effects. 3-4

All drenched in this supposed victimhood, as they 'heroically' address the errors French and British institutions have supposedly made in distancing themselves from this way of thinking. Something that needed happening because of that exact same influence. 4-4

ME/CFS Science@mecfsscience.org

Note the blatant disregard for the evidence quality of CBT reducing 'symptoms', the criticizing of patients for calling it ME, ignoring that is because CFS/fatigue is unrepresentative, the anxious overrepresentation of 'predictive-processing models', 2-4

It is good to see that even in ideologic bastions, like in Norway, the denial of possibly being wrong - often hidden behind this perpetual veil of good intentions - is slowly being questioned. Can't wait to see which phase of mourning these folks will hit next ;). 1/7

ME/CFS Science@mecfsscience.org

1 🇳🇴) In this Norwegian study, therapists using a psychosomatic approach to ME/CFS expressed "concern about how current approaches might be viewed if future research were to establish a treatable biological dysfunction."

In that sense the authors' next mourning phase is already showing. They seem to have already been negotiating for quite some time. 7/7

tandfonline.comMaking recovery conceivable: perspectives from healthcare professionals using psychologically and behaviourally informed approaches to chronic fatigue syndromeHealthcare professionals (HCPs) treating patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) work within a contested field marked by uncertainty. This study explored how HCPs using psychologically and beh...

Source: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

ME/CFS Science@mecfsscience.org

Also notice the appropriation and further whitewashing (2): 1. The concept of 'persistent somatic symtoms' is reiterated as 'a new map for understanding '. You can read about how it's abused here: academic.oup.com/brain/articl... and here: www.frontiersin.org/journals/med... 5/7

And 2. Although it is mentioned that the terms 'epistemic trust and injustice' have been used to criticize these approaches, they are also used here to whitewash 'new' forms of the same thing. 6/7

ME/CFS Science@mecfsscience.org

to the scientific invalidity of older and new 'concepts and frameworks', or to the entire PHYSICAL dimension of harming people with cognitive and behavioural approaches that suffer from post-exertional malaise. 3/7

More so, in the introduction they 'nevertheless' argue 'some studies suggest that interventions (...) reduce symptoms, improve functioning, and support recovery from CFS and other persistent somatic symptoms'. Referring to the classics, as well as to their own stuff. 4/7

ME/CFS Science@mecfsscience.org

Still it's disappointing that the authors don't seem able to summarize and appraise the referred to criticism to CBT etc. adequately, not even slightly referring to: the heap of methodological concerns (fatigue, CFS) that a decent OBJECTIVE outcome has NEVER been produced, 2/7

link.springer.comME/CFS and the thalamus as a precision gate: what reversible thalamocortical connectivity reveals about central gain in post-infectious fatigue - Journal of Translational MedicineKim and colleagues report a finding that is easy to understate: thalamic hyperconnectivity with sensorimotor and visuo-occipital cortices, present in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fa...

Ironic to see a response saying these hypotheses and findings are 'easily understated', as the literature has been riddled with similar, overrepresented and overgeneralized FND rhetoric for decades, more so when based on a single, and not very convincing, HBOT study. A 🧵: 1/9

Andreas Strube@astrube.bsky.social

1/ Laura Kim, @scheibenbogen.bsky.social and colleagues show that thalamic hyperconnectivity in ME/CFS shifts toward healthy-control patterns after HBOT, most strongly in patients who improve. But what is the thalamus actually computing in this circuit? link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The problem remains: the blatant double standard in evidence generation and interpretation that exists, in which it is implied these hypotheses need to be falsified, not proven. This happens from the level of hypothesis generation, all the way up to the interpretation of treatment efficacy. 9/9

*Brain retraining proponents have entered the chat for clout*

sciencedirect.comImmunoglobulin G complexes from post-infectious ME/CFS, including post-COVID ME/CFS disrupt cellular energetics and alter inflammatory marker secretionAutoimmunity is a key clinical feature in both post-infectious Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and Post-Acute Sequelae of …

Andreas Strube@astrube.bsky.social

Why no 'holistic' mention that this mitochondrial damage has been through the entire body, outwide of the brain? Also in immune cells, but also in the endothelium, skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle, n.b. partially by the same researchers? We know why. 7/9 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

frontiersin.orgFrontiers | Commentary: Internal medicine at the crossroads of long COVID diagnosis and managementWe read with attention the article by Ranque and Cogan (1) entitled "Internal medicine at the crossroads of Long COVID diagnosis and management." W...

Critiques are often countered by 2 forms of response. 1) The straw-man that 'mind-body interactions' are fully denied by critics. 2) A motte-and-bailey fallacy, through which statements are temporarily toned down a bit. 8/9 www.frontiersin.org/journals/med...

academic.oup.comSystemic increase of AMPA receptors associated with cognitive impairment of long COVIDFujimoto et al. report that the patients with cognitive impairments after SARS-CoV-2 infection showed significant AMPA receptors upregulation across their

Andreas Strube@astrube.bsky.social

Why no mention of the likely leading cause of brain fog, next to vascular disturbances: diffuse glutamatergic excitotoxicity across the brain (including the thalamus)? 5/9 academic.oup.com/braincomms/a...

youtu.beFelipe Correa da SilvaYouTube video by NMCB | Nederlandse MECVS Cohort en Biobank

Why no mention of the shown microglial fragmentation, i.e. degeneration of the brain's immune cells, accompanied by the mitochondrial fragmentation we also see in other tissues and immune cells outside of the brain, n.b. mostly after an infection? 6/9 youtu.be/30DkFAXHjDI?...

Andreas Strube@astrube.bsky.social

For some reason holistic symptom reductionists often think linearly themselves: 'None of this settles whether the primary disturbance is bottom-up or top-down'. Which is solved by a god-like 'signal weighing' narrative, that appropriates some peripheral biomedical findings. 3/9

It becomes even more telling, when neuroscientists/clinicians - who often whine about supposed 'mind-body dichotomies' - start perpetuating them themselves: why else is the only mention of central brain involvement one fitting the narrative of 'central gain' and 'effort preference'? 4/9

Andreas Strube@astrube.bsky.social

This seems pathognomonic of a self-sustaining selection bias among certain academics, who don't seem interested or knowledgeable in the systemic, or central, biology of PAIS/ME, just cherry pick some biomed stuff, and let that converge with their own ideas and interests. 2/9

psychiatrymargins.comReconsidering the Place of Dualism in Medicine and Psychiatry: An Exchange with Diane O’Leary[Redux]

Still hoping you reach out @awaisaftab.bsky.social! Is your cool interview with @dianeoleary.bsky.social on psychiatry's conflation on dualism, and your hesitation there to call out MUS for what it scientifically is, 1/10 www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/reconsider...

Here's a dismantling of the mordernist MUS-argument, in the form of somatic-symptom and functional disorders, and within the medical context of long Covid and ME/CFS, not as much within the philosophical context: 9 www.frontiersin.org/journals/med...

academic.oup.comValidate User

And another one: 10-End academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

psychiatrymargins.comReconsidering the Place of Dualism in Medicine and Psychiatry: An Exchange with Diane O’Leary[Redux]

Shouldn't psychiatry be the 1st to know that change and losing relevance aren't the same? Although admittedly this means the role of mind-body ideologues is played out. So when will psych and medicine -on the topic of MUS - start choosing patients, and not themselves? 7

static.klipy.comstatic.klipy.comALT:

O'Leary and many others: 'Psychiatry and medicine, start looking at yourselves!' Psychiatry and medicine: 8

psychiatrymargins.comReconsidering the Place of Dualism in Medicine and Psychiatry: An Exchange with Diane O’Leary[Redux]

It's the idea patients will suffer if radiologists, oncologists etc. keep doing what they do best by embracing 'biomedical reductionism'. It's a taught reflex that ignores that for decades (confounded) BPS thinking has already been dominant AND caused harms. 5

static.klipy.comstatic.klipy.comALT:

The end of the interview beautifully shows an important reason for psychiatry's conflation on dualism: Its endless circular rationalizing is a defense mechanism to 'guard against' the all encompassing anxiety for the loss of its relevance if things change (and improve). 6

psychiatrymargins.comReconsidering the Place of Dualism in Medicine and Psychiatry: An Exchange with Diane O’Leary[Redux]

The selective frame that there's this constant danger of 'disconnecting the mind from the brain that needs to be guarded against', is as much a reflex within psychiatry's to reiterate its relevance - ever since the 'neuroreductionist age' couldn't explain everything -, 3

as it is a poor argument for the the mind's role in symptom experience, as it is a valid risk. Part of that reasoning, not all, is still built on this non-sequitur: 'With new scans and DNA-stuff, we still don't understand everything, therefore it must be the mind.' 4

psychiatrymargins.comReconsidering the Place of Dualism in Medicine and Psychiatry: An Exchange with Diane O’Leary[Redux]