Outstanding article by Julie Rehmeyer on the criminally incompetent PACE study, conducted in the United Kingdom, that purported to find a simple, low-cost solution to the complex issue of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (or Myalgic Encephalitis, as it is called in many countries).
The issue wasn't with the treatments proposed: both graded exercise programs and psychotherapy, the two modalities hailed by the study as panaceas, have been helpful to many CFS/ME patients in managing symptoms. (I've had good results with graded exercise programs myself; I'll write something on that in the near future.)
Where the study went completely off the rails was in its grandiose promises that these treatments would improve the actual course of disease. Its relaxation of experimental standards and sloppy outcomes analysis has had a drastic impact on policy-making surrounding this still not completely understood disease.
Rehmeyer's review of the pushback within the research community helps highlight the problems with single-study science being adopted as a baseline for decisions within the healthcare field.
