People with ME are owed an apology


The quote from Simon Wessely is an extract from the fascinating National Archive
files,which were kindly supplied to me by the Grace Charity.  It is part of a letter Simon Wessely wrote to Mansel Aylward, in 1993, at the Department of Social Security, in response to a leaflet the MEA published listing "CFS/ME" under "Other Neurological Disorders." 

 Dr Wessely stated that "I am disturbed that this disorder should be listed as a neurological disease" and went on to claim that there is "far more evidence suggesting that" schizophrenia and manic depression "have a neurological origin than does CFS/ME."

 The "main difference" he stated "between CFS and the major psychiatric disorders is neither aetiological, nor symptomatic, but the existence of a powerful lobby group that dislikes any association with psychiatry."

 Earlier this year Professor Simon Wessely was awarded a Knighthood for his services to healthcare, last year he received the John Maddox prize for his courage in standing up for science.

 Some of the research, at the time,  that possibly Simon Wessely missed, was this :

 1988 In conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh, the US NIAID held a large research workshop called "Consideration of the Design Studies of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome". There were participants from the Centres for Disease Control and from the National Institutes of  Health. One of the presentations was by Dr Sandra Daugherty, who reported that MRI scans on patients demonstrated abnormalities consistent with demyelination and cerebral oedema in  57% of patients studied. (It was at this conference that it was recommended that the term "CFIDS" be used instead of the term "CFS" on the basis of the immune dysfunction that had  been observed in the disorder).

1989 Detection of Viral-Related Sequences in CFS Patients using Polymerase Chain  Reaction W.John Martin (Nightingale Research Foundation: 1989: 1-5 1990 Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and the Psychiatrist SE Abbey, PE Garfinkel Canadian 
Journal of Psychiatry 1990:35:7:625-626 

 1992 A Chronic Illness Characterised by Fatigue, Neurologic and Immunologic Disorders, and Active Human Herpesvirus Type 6 Infection D Buchwald, PR Cheney, R Gallo, AL Komaroff et al Annals of Internal Medicine 992:116:2:103 
This paper states "Magnetic resonance scans of the brain showed punctate, subcortical areas  of high signal intensity consistent with oedema or demyelination in 78% of patients" 

 src : http://www.name-us.org/DefintionsPages/DefinitionsArticles/Hoopersdescription.pdf

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