The ME Association have made the following statement:

Friday, August 19, 2005
'Evidence points to psychiatric influence in new centres'
Christine Llewellyn, Chair, The ME Association, responds to a post on the Co-Cure ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia Information Exchange Forum:

In her post of 13th August 2005, Margaret Williams draws our attention to the current research into the physical causes of ME/CFS and the value of patient support groups.

The ME Association, in their funding of the genetic research conducted by Dr John Gow and his team at Glasgow University, are fully behind the view that "psychiatrists of the 'Wessely School' should take note of present developments and re-think their obviously outdated and potentially damaging approach to those with ME/CFS."

We find it extremely disturbing that the evidence so far points to the main influence in the newly created CNCCs to be psychiatric and would ask for more input from Patient groups in the running of these centres and a move away from the outdated and harmful methods of treatment ie. CBT and GET.

We need a fundamental change to illness management that actually helps sufferers and does not condemn them to weeks of discomfort after being subjected to ill advised management strategies.

We would also ask again, for the suspension of the PACE trials which we believe to be waste of public money and a harmful operation by those still bogged down in Wessely dogma.

The fact that Dr Gow and others following this ground-breaking research are funded not from the MRC, but through patient support groups/charities who can least afford it, must raise suspicions that perhaps the MRC and other government bodies are not interested in relief for the hundreds of thousands of sufferers of ME/CFS in the UK

The ME Association calls upon the MRC and the Department of Health to suspend the PACE trials and invest the funds involved into current genetic research which will actually be of some benefit to the ME population of the UK and those living further afield.

Christine Llewellyn
The ME Association

To read Margaret Williams' brief article, click here...