SMILE trial

The SMILE Trial was a feasibilty study which took place at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath and the University of Bristol in Britain. The principle investigator was Esther Crawley. It was designed to the effects of standard medical treatment (SMC) against that of the Lightning Process & SMC. The Lightning process takes place over three consecutive days in a group format. Participants were children aged between 12 and 18 drawn from the Bristol and Bath areas. Those who were housebound were excluded.

The co-applicant for the study was Fiona Finch, the Research Director at the Lightning Process company (Phil Parker Ltd).

Methodology
The trial compared patients receiving Standard Medical Care (SMC) against the Lightning Process (LP) in conjunction with SMC.

Outcome was initially to be based on school attendance. This was changed to assessment based on the following scales: the Chalder fatigue scale, pain visual analogue scale, physical function short form (SF-36), the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) for children aged 14 and over,  and the Euroqol (EQ-5D), a five-item quality of life inventory.

Out of 156 children considered eligible, 56 participated, with the study beginning in September 2012. Anxious children were offered 3 sessions of CBT over a 6 week period.

SMC was graded activity with phone calls and family based rehabilitation consultations lasting an hour at 6 weeks, 3 months & 4.5 months.

Funding
The initial budget was £164,000 funded by the Linbury Trust and the Ashden Trust.

Research ethics
In a joint statement in August 2010, the ME Association and the Young ME Sufferers Trust called the SMILE study "unethical" saying, "The ME Association and The Young ME Sufferers Trust do not believe that it is ethically right to use children in trialling an unproven and controversial process such as the Lightning Process."

Invest in ME in a letter to the National Research Ethics Committee (NRES) described the process as "rather like CBT but with bullying and risks of harm."

Professor Robin Gill, a member of the BMA medical ethics committee, wrote to the Church Times about the LP and the SMILE trial. He expressed concern about the issue of coercion of children in the trial.

Results
The results have been not published in paper despite the trial being completed in 2013. There has been no further study following on from this feasibility one.

There are some selective quotes in a 2015 paper as well the final study protocol, which was published after the trial ended. James Coyne said of the quotes "(they) cannot be independently evaluated. Readers are not told how representative these quotes, the outcomes for the children being quoted or the overall outcomes of the trial."

Criticisms

 * John Peters has criticised the study.

Investigators
Esther Crawley, Nicola Mills, Will Hollingworth, Zuzana Deans, Jonathan A Sterne, Jenny L Donovan, Lucy Beasant and Alan Montgomery