How CG53 failed patients
Stonebird Greg Crowhurst November 2016 NICE are currently considering whether their guideline CG53 Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy): diagnosis and management requires updating. IT MOST CERTAINLY DOES !!! When CG 53, based upon a handful of low quality Randomised Controlled Trials , that were methodologically flawed, was published in 2007 almost all the UK ME Charities condemned it as unfit for purpose. This is hardly surprising given that the Guideline Development Group (GDG) excluded from its membership all NHS specialists experienced in treating adult ME patients . As Kevin Short (2012) comments: “ This is shocking by any standards: imagine the media outrage if a NICE guideline on infectious disease excluded all virologists from its production or a guideline on breast-cancer excluded all oncologists? ” The ME community greeted NICE’s guideline with disgust and widespread outrage that so much evidence a