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

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ME/CFS patients continue to be accused by doctors of refusal to get better and of not wanting to work. In
2006 one patient was taunted: “If you’re able to get to my surgery, you’re able to get a job. Don’t confuse me with
facts. My mind is made up” (Co‐Cure: 10 th October 2006).
Another was sworn at and told she was abusing the NHS and ought to be ashamed of herself (this patient
had worked in a senior clinical capacity in the NHS for longer than the GP concerned and was assessed by
Social Services as requiring 24 hour care).
On 12 th March 2008 Frank Furedi wrote about “The seven deadly personality disorders. They used to be called the
seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, anger, envy, pride. With lust relabelled ‘sex addiction’ and gluttony
turned into an ‘eating disorder, it’s no wonder Catholics are unsure about the seven deadly sins. Sloth has been
medicalised, too. The creation of conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome invites people to make sense
of their lassitude through a medical label” (http://www.spiked‐online.com/index.php?/site/article/4862/ ).
Unknown numbers of severely sick people with ME/CFS have been removed from GPs’ lists, often with no
prior warning. After the BMJ poll on non‐diseases in 2002, one very sick ME patient was brusquely
informed that “This practice does not treat non‐diseases” and was removed from the list.
The tradition of shameful diatribes and invective against ME/CFS sufferers still abounds. Doctors seem to
vie amongst themselves to produce jibes at ME sufferers’ expense. Why do they not jibe with equal disdain
and offence at those with other classified chronic conditions such as lupus or multiple sclerosis? The answer
can only be because they have been encouraged to jibe at ME/CFS patients by decades of public denigration
by the Wessely School.
That Simon Wessely is known to jibe at people with ME/CFS is a matter of record. For example, in his
enthusiastic review of “Biopsychosocial Medicine” published by Oxford University Press in 2005 and edited
by Peter White (“Physicians with a keenness for epidemiology, sociology or psychology will treasure this collection”)
Craig Jackson, Professor of Occupational Health Psychology at Birmingham City University, wrote about
Wessely’s Foreword: “He almost completes it without a dig at the Chronic Fatigue fraternity – succumbing in the
end” (Occup Med 2005:55:7:582). That a professional colleague of Wessely should identify a pattern of
mocking behaviour by Wessely towards such sick people, published without demur in a professional
journal – thereby encouraging its acceptability – is a serious matter. It is especially serious given that
Wessely is involved with “advice about design and execution” of a publicly‐funded MRC trial involving the
very people he is known to mock.
Sadly, it seems that this culture of contempt is set to continue and that the anticipated results of the PACE
Trial will serve to perpetuate the climate of medical ignorance about ME/CFS because participants were
selected using the Oxford criteria which identify people with a fatiguing illness but do not identify people
with ME (see below).
The CCRNC Conference, Milton Keynes, 23 rd April 2009
The CFS/ME Clinical and Research Network Collaborative Conference took place on 23 rd April 2009 at
Milton Keynes. Both the conference itself and the Network (now re‐named the British Association for
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME and using the acronym “BACME”) deserve mention.
The Chair of the CCRNC is Dr Esther Crawley, a consultant paediatrician who could be described as an
ardent Wessely School supporter. On 8 th July 2009 Dr Crawley spoke at the Countess of Mar’s “Forward ‐
ME” group meeting held at the House of Lords. The Minutes of that meeting and Dr Crawley’s power‐point
presentation are accessible at http://www.forward‐me.org.uk/8th%20July%202009.htm