Gupta program

The Gupta programme or Gupta Amydala Retraining describes itself as a "brain training" or "brain re-wiring" technique designed "to alter amygdala and insular activity" in order to treat or cure chronic diseases including chronic fatigue syndrome. The Gupta programme is based on the amygdala hypothesis of chronic fatigue syndrome, which is unproven and has not been a significant focus of research. The Gupta Programme has previously claimed to treat fibromyalgia and electrical sensitivities as well as ME/CFS.

Evidence
Evidence is largely limited to patient self-reports. The UK's Advertising Standards Authority has upheld complaints about the Gupta Programme being falsely advertised as a treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome/ME, fibromyalgia and "electrical sensitivities" due to the lack of scientific evidence supporting this claim.

Amygdala and insular activity hypothesis
There is no scientific evidence to support the Gupta Program claims that chronic diseases including ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia are caused by problematic or dysfunctional patterns or activity in the amygdala and insular parts of the brain. These areas of the brain are not one of the key areas of medical research for ME/CFS, and the UK's patient-driven ME/CFS Priority Setting Partnership did not highlight these within the top 10 it even top 18 areas that medical research should focus on.

Amygdala and insular activity changes
There is no evidence that the Gupta Program alters amygdala or insular activity in a positive way-as it claims to do-or even that amygdala or insular activity patterns are altered in any way.

Evidence from coaches
The Gupta Program is delivered by coaches who charge their clients for the program, many of the personal testimonials are offered by coaches who are not neutral since they are earning money by offering the courses. These personal accounts are not backed up by science and do not include evidence that the coach was even diagnosed with the illnesses claimed, nor that Torrey have actually recovered.

Reported harms
Some people have reported being harmed by brain training programmes, including Jen Brea, who has ME/CFS, mold-related illness and mast cell activation syndrome, and Ana Harris, who had mold-related illness.

Theory
Both Brea and Harris criticized the assumption that symptoms were caused by an overactivation/reactivity in the brain that was claimed to be unrelated to the underlying illness, an assumption which is presented as an uncontested fact by the Gupta Programme.

This belief of "symptoms without disease" and the assumption that flawed illness beliefs exist that should be challenged are core parts of the cognitive behavioral model of ME/CFS and an hypothesis underlying the use of graded exercise therapy and the psychosomatic approach to medically unexplained symptoms, treatments associated with significant rates of harm. This "not a disease" theory provides justification for the Gupta Programme teaching patients to ignore or minimize their symptoms―despite significant the evidence that ME/CFS has an underlying disease process, and the World Health Organization classes it as a neurological disease rather than a set of symptoms that may not indicate disease. Ignoring or minimizing symptoms is inconsistent with pacing, which involves monitoring symptoms and using them to help decide when best to stop an activity in order to avoid a "crash". which is widely

Learn more

 * Advertising Standards Association complaint result (2018)