Media Article: "The puzzle of ME moves a little closer to being solved"

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| May 15, 2006 | Permanent Link
Here's an interesting article about Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) / Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome. that was posted on 15/05/2006 in the Telegraph:

"Prof van der Meer has also found that patients with ME react more to normal stimuli. "They sense more fatigue and more pain. This is about perception, but it is not psychiatry. It is very real and probably at the level of neurotransmitters giving signals that are too strong - as we can see when we do MRI scans on ME patients performing simple tasks."

"Other research has shown excessive levels of cell-damaging free radicals in blood, urine and muscle tissue. And Dr Kerr has identified 100 "faulty" genes."

-- The puzzle of ME moves a little closer to being solved, The Telegraph, 15/05/2006 --


Of particular interest is that the article quotes a Professor Peter White, professor of psychological medicine at Queen Mary School of Medicine, London (who is apparently running the MRC-funded trial into Pacing, Activity and Cognitive behaviour therapy for ME/CFS (the renown PACE trials). The article quotes Peter White as saying:

"CBT has been shown in five trials to be an effective treatment for ME and in uncontrolled studies people who are quite severely disabled have made significant improvements on a GET programme that is tailor-made for the individual."


CBT and GET are areas of great controversy in the ME/CFS community. They are 'grey areas' - some are for them, some are against them.


Check out this post if you want to learn more...

I hope you find the article interesting!

Claire
Editor of Sleepydust