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

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“Functional somatic syndromes….include chronic fatigue syndrome….Perpetuating factors have particular
importance in understanding CFS…Physical deconditioning as a consequence of reduced activity may contribute
towards greater experience of symptoms” (Hyong Jin Cho, Simon Wessely, Rev Bras Psiquiatr 2005:27:3).
These are barely illustrative of Professor Wessely’s recorded beliefs about ME/CFS, with which the literature
is replete.
It is perhaps worth putting on record that following publication of some quotations from Wessely’s own
articles in CFIDS Chronicle (Spring 1994:14‐18 – see below), Simon Wessely wrote: “If you must quote, do it
accurately. I was v(ery) upset by CFIDS ‐‐‐ currently meeting Counsel for the MDU (Medical Defence Union). I
don’t mind what people write about me providing they are accurate with the facts” (personal communication).
Given that it was Wessely’s own work that was quoted, his comment was remarkable.
It is also understood that in 1989, Wessely sought an injunction to compel the publishers of Dr Anne
Macintyre’s book “ME‐PVFS: how to live with it” (Unwin Paperbacks) to remove the section that
documented his own involvement with the case of Ean Proctor (see below) and republish without reference
to himself, with which they duly complied, although copies of the first edition remain in existence.
It is the case that Wessely threatened the charity Westcare (now subsumed within Action for ME) who were
at that time the UK distributors of CFIDS Chronicle with an injunction unless they defaced every copy and
removed an article entitled “The Views of Dr Simon Wessely on ME: Scientific Misconduct in the Selection
and Presentation of Available Evidence?” (Spring 1994:14‐18) before sending out the Chronicle, which
Westcare duly did. This was confirmed by Richard Sykes himself (for Sykes’ further involvement in ME
issues, see below), who said that his charity could not run the risk of legal proceedings by Wessely and who
then wrote to CFIDS Chronicle in support of Wessely and asked that the Chronicle publish an apology to Dr
Wessely in the next issue (a request that was declined by the Editors of the Chronicle). People in the UK
complained that copies for which they had paid in advance had been defaced without an injunction
requiring such action. However, copies of the CFIDS Chronicle that were mailed directly from the US were
not similarly defaced and in fact, the furore drew even more attention to the article.
In October 2009 the premier journal Science published evidence that a gamma‐retrovirus XMRV (related to
the HIV/AIDS virus – see below) has been found in patients with ME/CFS, a profoundly important
discovery about which Simon Wessely was instantly publicly dismissive (see below).
Following the discovery of XMRV by the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro‐Immune Diseases, the
Institute issued a statement: “Does (XMRV) prove once and for all that ME/CFS is not a psychological or
psychosomatic illness as described by those who don’t understand the disease? Absolutely! Actually there are
thousands of research articles showing the very real biological problems that ME/CFS patients experience. Only the
most stubborn and misinformed individuals refuse to believe that this disease is real and serious”
(http://wpinstitute.org/xmrv/xmrv_qa.html).
Notably, Dr Jacob Teitelbaum from the US commented: “The XMRV research helps make it even clearer how real
and devastating (ME)CFS is. This may offer a bit more to silence the nitwits who like to claim (ME)CFS is all
in your mind (though I would not count on it, as they have ignored reams of earlier research showing
(ME)CFS/FMS to be very real illnesses)” (Co‐Cure Res: 30 th October 2009).
For over two decades, the Wessely School have ascribed the symptoms of “CFS/ME” to somatisation.
Lipowski defined somatisation as: “a tendency to experience and communicate somatic distress and symptoms
unaccounted for by pathological findings, to attribute them to physical illness, and to seek medical help for them” (Am
J Psychiat 1988:145:1358‐1368). His concept is widely accepted, especially in psychiatry (a discipline that is
more of an art than a science).