Psychiatrist Professor Simon Wessely advises the prescription of lithium for patients with ME/CFS:
“There is no doubt that at least half of CFS patients have a disorder of mood.
The management of affective disorders is an essential part of the treatment of CFS/ME.
Numerous trials attest to the efficacy of tricyclic antidepressants in the treatment of fatigue states. Patients who fail to respond should be treated along similar lines to those proposed for treatment-resistant depression.
Adding a second antidepressant agent, especially lithium, may be beneficial” (The chronic fatigue syndrome – myalgic encephalomyelitis or postviral fatigue. S Wessely PK Thomas. In: Recent Advances in Clinical Neurology (ed): Christopher Kennard. Churchill Livingstone 1990: pp 85-131).
Now what is lithium used for??? Exactly, Bipolar disorder and it is used to stabilise the mood swings.
But lets go back to the past when Bipolar disorder was still called manic-depressive illness.
And what does Wikipedia say about manic episodes:
“People commonly experience an increase in energy and a decreased need for sleep. A person's speech may be pressured, with thoughts experienced as racing.
Attention span is low and a person in a manic state may be easily distracted.
Judgment may become impaired; sufferers may go on spending sprees or engage in behavior that is quite abnormal for them.
They may indulge in substance abuse, particularly alcohol or other depressants, cocaine or other stimulants, or sleeping pills. Their behavior may become aggressive or intrusive.”
And yes I fully agree with the professor, this is exactly what we suffer from and what being bedridden with ME in particular is all about....
The more I learn about CBT-ism the less I need stand-up comedians. I won’t say more but yeah you wonder about medical training and so …
Or is all the psycho research on CFS and ME actually done on patients with a mental health disorder and "just" Chronic Fatigue ???
Would explain a lot don't you think ....
4 comments:
Your blog keeps me sane. I go to the doctor and hear a load of crap from someone who doesn't understand what ME is, but then I come here and I feel a bit better. Still frustrated, but better.
Dr Cheney has found that antidepressants 'fry' the brains of M.E. patients.
This is irresponsible & dangerous 'advice' from Prof Wessely, who always puts his own best interests well before those of M.E. patients.
Thank you. I have a Google alert set to tell me about new articles on ME and treatment. When I saw your link, with a description that included Wessley, I thought I was going to have to post yet another comment about how the methodology for CBT is flawed. I'm very happy to see it's not necessary after all.
Can the depths this man plunges to become any more idiotic?
I don't know anyone with ME who has hypomanic or manic episodes, unless they have concomitant Bipolar Disorder I or II, but how he thinks ME patients have the energy to be manic to any degree that would necessitate treatment with lithium is sheer lunacy of the highest degree.
Mood swings are not an uncommon reaction to battling a poorly understood and reviled condition, dealing with multiple losses and cognitive problems. They may even be a result of the disease process itself.
Wessely strikes me as a narcissistic individual - one of those people who feels that the more patients resist his 'findings,' the more inherently right he must be. I wonder if it ever occurs to the man that the reason he is so widely disliked is that he has no personal experience of the condition and utterly no clue of what he is talking about.
Keep bringing my profession into repute, Professor Wessely. It's only a matter of time before you're discredited by the real science you so assiduously ignore.
Not all of us involved in Wessely's area of expertise make a name for ourselves by grinding sick people down with psychobabble, and some of us care even less about what the man says. The journals he publishes in require slightly more...diplomatic criticism of his work than would be allowable in the case of calling him what he actually is - a shameless psuedo scientist who makes his living profiteering from perpetuating the notion that ME is in some fashion a psychiatric condition.
The incidence of ME is increasing and there would appear to be vested interests at work in saving certain organisations insurance payouts and simultaneously being allowed to author research papers on the condition, which is despicable and ought to be thoroughly investigated.
Post a Comment