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

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“the authors were allowed to present opinions as facts and to ignore the many studies that undermined their
hypothesis. Their lack of objectivity resulted in the publication of a poorly‐researched article which misrepresented the
research and perpetuated myths. What happened to evidence‐based medicine?” (EM Goudsmit PhD)
“Barsky and Borus managed to omit several hundred of peer‐reviewed articles documenting physiologic bases for
illnesses such as the chronic fatigue syndrome. Even the review of the psychological literature left out articles
inconsistent with Barsky and Borus’ speculations and sometime inaccurately portrayed the research they included”
(TE Hedrick PhD)
“I’ve never been able to determine how secondary gains that include financial hardship, social isolation and
reduced quality of life can perpetuate illness behaviour” (J McSherry MB ChB)
“The authors claim that (CFS) has ‘enough in common’ with other syndromes for them to be lumped
together. Since when was ‘enough’ a suitable quantification to pass peer review?” (K Clemenger BS)
“A shocking article appeared in a widely read medical journal that seemed to turn back history. The authors argued
that all somatic illnesses, those without a clear explanation of the cause, are fake. Such diseases, these psychiatrists
argued, are little more than the expression of unhappy people who are desperate for attention. The authors further
stated that doctors who appear to be ‘sympathetic’ to such patients only encourage these bogus maladies to persist”
(Faces of CFS: Case Histories of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. David S Bell. Lyndonville Publications, New
York, 2000).
Given the well‐known and resolute commitment of the PACE Trial Principal Investigators (Professors
Sharpe, White and Chalder) – and their powerful paymasters the medical and permanent health insurance
industry ‐‐ to recategorising “CFS/ME” as a mental disorder, and given the Wessely School’s success in
ensuring that the NICE Guideline rejected the ICD‐10 neurological classification that has held good for the
last 40 years, and given the PACE Trial team’s forecast that the outcome of the Trial will inform any future
revision of the NICE Guideline on “CFS/ME”, particularly given the content of the PACE Trial Manuals, it
would be foolhardy to hope that the CISSD report will be able to counter such a determined strategy by
such powerful and influential advocates.
The CISSD project includes psychiatrists who do not believe patients and who seem to denigrate them,
and who also ignore voluminous research evidence, so the long‐running battle of the Wessely School’s
unproven beliefs versus biomedical science seems set to continue.
For additional information about the CISSD Project and on the progress of the DSM and ICD revision
processes, see http://meagenda.wordpress.com/dsm‐v‐directory/ (to whom grateful acknowledgment is
made).
Attempts to reclassify irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) as a mental disorder
Peter White’s call for the separation of PVFS from “CFS/ME” and for a consequent revision of the ICD
taxonomy seems a clear indication of his intention to reclassify “CFS/ME” as a somatoform disorder, along
with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which the Wessely School believe is also a somatoform disorder
(Lancet 1999:354:936‐939) in defiance of the evidence that it is not, of which the following are recent
illustrations:
• at the 68 th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology held in 2003 at
Baltimore, important findings were presented by lead investigators from the University of Vermont
(Peter Moses, Associated Professor of Medicine and Director of Clinical Research in the Digestive
Diseases, and Gary Mawe, Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology): “Serotonin is a critical
signalling molecule necessary for normal gut function. Our finding that key elements of serotonin signalling