5 Quotes by Charles Shepherd

...patient evidence has repeatedly found that cognitive behaviour therapy is ineffective and graded exercise therapy can make the condition worse.

The largest and most recent ME Association survey (ME Association, 2015) of patient evidence on the acceptability, efficacy and safety of CBT, GET and Pacing involved 1428 respondents. In this case, 73 per cent of respondents reported that CBT had no effect on their symptoms and 74 per cent reported that their symptoms were made worse by GET.

This is not an argument with psychiatry. Mental and physical illness are equally real and horrible. As with any long-term illness, some people with ME/CFS will develop comorbid depression and other mental health problems – where CBT can be of help alongside good quality general management. The argument here is with a flawed model of causation assuming efficacy for CBT and GET while taking no significant account of varying clinical presentations and disease pathways.

PVFS (post-viral fatigue syndrome) This term was introduced during the eariy 1980s in Britain as an alternative to ME. It remains a useful description for anyone whose illness can clearly be traced back to an acute viral infection. The drawback to PVFS is that it cannot be used to describe cases where some other factor (e.g. vaccination or pesticide) acted as the principal trigger.

the time has come for doctors and scientists to apologise for the very neglectful way in which ME has been researched and treated over the past 60 years.