‘Some false assumptions about ME’, letter in the Financial Times, published 29 March 2008.
“Sir, Margaret McCartney’s article about medically unexplained symptoms contains a number of false assumptions (“If it’s in the mind, it’s still the real thing”, Life & Arts, March 22-23).
First, she claims that myalgic encephalitis is medically unexplained, when in fact there are hundreds of studies demonstrating the physical abnormalities found in ME. What is unexplained is why there is still a debate about whether ME is psychological or physical when there is overwhelming evidence of immunological, neurological, endocrine and cardiac involvement in the illness.
She then makes a leap to claim that “medically unexplained” means that symptoms are psychological, ignoring the rather obvious fact that it actually just means they are as yet unexplained.
She credits Prof Simon Wessley with this (old) theory, but psychiatrists have always claimed organic illnesses are psychological until medical science explains them (examples include MS, TB, ulcers and polio).
“Due to the groundbreaking research suggesting the possibility of a viral etiology in a subset of CFS patients, we are sponsoring a special satellite session on viral etiology in CFS immediately after the end of the main conference on June 22nd through Monday, June 23rd.
Speakers to include:
Jose G. Montoya, MD, Stanford University, USA (HHV-6 & EBV)
John Chia, MD, EV Med Research, Lomita, CA, USA (enterovirus)
Andrew Lloyd, MD, UNSW School of Medical Sciences (post viral fatigue)
Anthony Komaroff, MD, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA (infections in CFS)
Brigitte Huber, PhD, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA (retrovirus)
Keizo Tomanga, PhD, DVM, Osaka University, Japan (borna virus)
Nancy Klimas, MD, University of Miami, Florida, USA (immune markers in viral infections vs CFS)
Kazuhiro Kondo, MD, PhD, Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan (HHV-6 & 7)
Ron Glaser, PhD, Ohio State University Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA (EBV)
Jonathan Kerr, MD, PhD, St. George’s, University of London, UK (parvovirus, gene expression)
Dan Peterson, MD, Sierra Internal Medicine, Incline Village, USA (novel viruses in CFS)
Birgitta Evengard, MD, PhD, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden (viral markers in CFS)
Suzanne Vernon, PhD, CFIDS Association of America, USA
The 25% ME Group cannot condone the promotion of any psychosocial (CBT and/or GET) management regime as the primary intervention in cases of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. (ME)
The existing evidence from surveys of over 3,000 patients suggests that such regimes are of limited value
and at worst are harmful,
leading to increased illness
and disablement.
The 25% ME Group stands uncompromisingly for the truth that ME is a World Health Organization classified neurological (ICD10:G93.3) multisystem, physical disease,
Your article this week on Gene research in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis by Dr Jonathan Kerr in St George’s Hospital was a breath of fresh air in the stale atmosphere of UK government funded research.
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue syndrome are commonly referred to as M.E. and C.F.S.In 1955 Dr Melvin Ramsay reviewed a cohort of young doctors and nurses in the Royal Free Hospital in London and published a report relating to their massive debilitating fatigue.
Over the years it has been shown to be a physical disease.
The cause is obscure, this obscurity has been masterfully used by psychiatrists to claim that the disease is a manifestation of a psychiatric condition, leading to an imagined problem.
A radical US-style corporate-led health care system is exactly what New Labour are bringing about in the UK , shadily and with little public consultation.
Sickness is a temporary phenomenon according to Waddell and Aylward (??? psychiatrists).
Illness is a behaviour – ‘all the things people say and do that express and communicate their feelings of being unwell’ (p39).
The degree of illness behaviour is dependent not upon an underlying pathology but on ‘individual attitudes and beliefs’, as well as ‘the social context and culture in which it occurs’.
My daughter is the only person I’ve ever known who can sprain an ankle while standing still on a carpeted floor. If you look at her too hard, one of her joints can pop out. Her life is filled with sprains, strains and dislocations-name something bad you can do to a muscle, joint or ligament and she’s done it more than once.
“Accident prone,” people said.
“School avoidance,”
“attention getting,”
“drug seeking,” they said. All those kinds of things.
Finally she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, an inherited collagen disorder that is common among YPWCs (young persons with CFS)-and which causes sprains, strains, dislocations and pulls!
It wasn’t mental or attitudinal after all, though none of those who said it ever apologized.She also has had severe abdominal pain. Sonograms, X-rays, CAT scans, MRIs-nothing! All in her head, they said. Exaggeration, bad family dynamics, could be it’s Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, but certainly there is No Physical Cause!
The TESTS are negative, they said, and that proves it! It’s mental!Finally a specialized scan showed a condition my wife and I had never heard of-varicose pelvic veins. Most doctors have never heard of it either. It’s an extremely painful condition that’s hard to detect.
The veins were fixed and the pain is gone. But again, no apologies.
It’s certainly common for persons with CFIDS to face disbelief from practitioners, friends and relatives. People get just absolutely sure you have a mental condition.
I call this hysterical medicine. The doctor does his exam. It’s negative. He rounds up the standard suspects by doing whatever tests occur to him. These too are negative. So he decides without further consideration that the cause is in the mind. “Been under a lot of stress lately?” he asks. “Problems at school?” he asks the kids.
“How’s your marriage doing?” he says to adults. And if the patient says, “No, no problems, except that I’m sick,” then of course the point is proven.She’s ……..
On Monday, 28 April the Royal Society of Medicine is holding a conference on “Chronic fatigue syndrome” for members of the RSM and health care professionals.
A peaceful demonstration will be held on the afternoon of 28 April outside the Royal Society of Medicine as the whole conference is dominated by psychiatrists ….
My family called the doctor to the house on one occasion after I had become too weak to walk or talk and couldn’t make the bathroom without assistance.
Posted by Wessely 
Posted by Wessely 
Posted by Wessely 