Gupta program
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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.[1][2] 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.[1] The Gupta Programme has previously claimed to treat fibromyalgia and electrical sensitivities as well as ME/CFS.
Evidence[edit | edit source]
Evidence is largely limited to patient self-reports. The British 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.[2]
Reported harms[edit | edit source]
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.[3][4]
Theory[edit | edit source]
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.[3][4]
This belief of "symptoms without disease" is also core part 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.[5][6][7][8] 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.[9]
See also[edit | edit source]
Learn more[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Gupta, Ashok (2002). "Unconscious amygdalar fear conditioning in a subset ofchronic fatigue syndrome patients" (PDF). Medical Hypotheses. 59 (6): 727–735.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Practice, Advertising Standards Authority | Committee of Advertising. "Harley Street Solutions Ltd". www.asa.org.uk. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 @jenbrea (February 8, 2018). "I crashed really hard from doing Gupta" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Harris, Ana. "My Brain Retraining Story – Ana Harris Writes". Retrieved September 25, 2020.
- ↑ "ME/CFS Illness Management Survey Results - "No decisions about me without me" Part 1" (PDF). meassociation.org. ME Association. May 2015. Cite has empty unknown parameter:
|dead-url=(help) - ↑ Oxford Clinical Allied Technology and Trials Services Unit (OxCATTS) (February 27, 2019). "Evaluation of a survey exploring the experiences of adults and children with ME/CFS who have participated in CBT and GET interventional programmes. FINAL REPORT" (PDF). Oxford Brookes University.
- ↑ Action for ME (2014). "Time to deliver: initial findings of Action for ME's 2014 survey" (PDF). Retrieved July 1, 2016.
- ↑ Invest in ME Research (July 2, 2017). "Response to NICE 10 year surveillance (2017) – Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis". www.investinme.org. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
CBT/GET have been proven to be based on non-science for ME and should be removed from any recommendations in the guideline.
Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ↑ World Health Organization. "ICD-10 Version:2016". icd.who.int. Retrieved September 25, 2020. Cite has empty unknown parameter:
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