Support for Severely Affected ME Sufferers Information for General Practitioners and Clinicians Greg Crowhurst (Updated Nov 2 2009) Introduction There is still much confusion and a lack of accurate knowledge about severe ME/CFS in the medical profession, leaving many patients “dismissed and abandoned without support.” Hooper et al (2005) . It is a matter of record that “the most severely affected are excluded from study in the UK.” (Hooper, Marshall & Williams 2006) Recent research by the 25% Group uncovers a shocking picture of severely ill ME/CFS sufferers being labelled as psychiatric patients, being treated with contempt by GP’s, doctors and nurses, being locked in secure units and shut in AIDS wards, being refused food and being made to participate in inappropriate graded exercise and behavioural therapy, designed to convince them there is nothing wrong with them. (Crowhurst 2005) What is ME/CFS? Variants of the term "M.E." were first used following a series of rep...