MAGICAL MEDICINE: HOW TO MAKE AN ILLNESS ... - Invest in ME

SECTION 3: Consideration of the MRC PACE Trial
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Under “Topic” in the UK Clinical Research Network Study Portfolio, the PACE Trial is listed as
“Neurological”; the category of disease being studied is listed under “Nervous system disorders”; under
“Main Inclusion Criteria” is stated “Unknown” and under “Main Exclusion Criteria” is also stated
“Unknown”, which may reflect the fact that Peter White sought approval from the West Midland MREC to
write to GPs virtually imploring them to send anyone with “chronic fatigue (or synonym)” for entry into the
PACE Trial, thereby opening the trial to anyone who is simply tired all the time (TATT).
Furthermore, a recent letter from Jane Spencer at the Department of Health (the DoH being a co‐funder of
the PACE Trial) states:
“The Department of Health accepts CFS/ME is a chronic long‐term neurological condition of unknown cause and
health and social care professionals should manage it as such.
“No management approach to CFS/ME has been found to be universally beneficial and none can be considered a cure.
“As with any treatment, an explanation of the benefits and possible harmful effects of CBT should always be provided
before decisions are made to offer and accept treatment”
(http://www.facebook.com/edittopic.php?uid=154801179671&topic=10499&action=4#/topic.php?uid=154801
179671&topic=10550).
This is notable, because the PACE Trial Principal Investigators consider “CFS/ME” to be a condition of
medically unexplained fatigue and deconditioning that is perpetuated by “inappropriate illness beliefs”,
neither do they accept that CBT/GET has any harmful effects and indeed, PACE Trial participants are
specifically reassured that such is the case (see below).
The same letter from Jane Spencer at the DoH also states:
“The main agency through which the Government supports medical and clinical research is the Medical Research
Council (MRC).
“It maintains a rigorous decision‐making process and only funds research that is likely to make a
significant contribution to knowledge and is a good use of tax‐payers’ money. Decisions to support
proposals are taken on the grounds of scientific quality and whether the research proposed would be likely
to inform the knowledge base. There is certainly no bias….
“Both trials (PACE and FINE) were subject to rigorous peer review that ensured their methodology was
robust”.
Information obtained under the FOIA and scrutiny of the trial literature appears to cast serious doubt on
such assertions and may invalidate them.
Misinformation in the MRC PACE Trial literature
The Patient Clinic Leaflet (http://pacetrial.org/trialinfo.html) that encouraged patients to become PACE Trial
participants states: “Chronic fatigue syndrome” is “also known as post‐viral fatigue syndrome, myalgic
encephalomyelitis (ME) or myalgic encephalomyelopathy (ME)”, thus there can be no doubt that patients with the
neuroimmune disease ME are alleged to be included in the PACE Trial. Whether or not it can be verified
that such patients were in fact recruited has not yet been clarified, since the entry criteria (the Wessely
School’s own 1991 “Oxford” criteria) specifically exclude those with a neurological disorder.