Any doctor who prescribes CBT and GET for ME could be sued as advised by the PACE trial

Readers' comments by Jen Wilson 18-Feb-2011 3:13 pm:

The PACE trial,by selecting its participants according to the Oxford criteria effectively excluded all those who have neuro-immune ME.It could be said to be fraudulent to extrapolate the slightly positive results based on idopathic chronic fatigue patients and apply them to those who are suffering from the devastating possibly infectious retroviral-associated neurological disease.

The motives of the researchers, who have chosen to ignore the 4 000 research papers, including those by the Drs Light, which graphically proved that exercise triggered a cascade of debilitating inflammatory responses, must be questioned and maybe their affiliations with the insurance industry and the DWP may have influenced the design of the study.

Large-scale studies undertaken by the patient associations have proven that the training regimes promoted by the PACE trial cause a high proportion of strictly-defined M.E. patients to relapse, often for years. The tragic cases of Lyn Gilderdale and Sophia Miraz, both of whom were made severely ill by this treatment approach, are prime examples of the dangers of the proposed regime. Both girls died and autopsies revealed that they had inflammation of the spinal cord.

Given the potential harmful effects of GET members of the medical profession who implement this approach might be subject to accusations of medical malfeasance.

The most appropriate approach to coping with the illness and maximising activity is 'pacing', which is quite different to that purported to be of little use by the trial, which was a modified form of GET.

Please support ME patients to maximise their capabilities and do not implement a training programme designed for those with idiopathetic fatigue on those who have the devastating disease M.E.