Sir Peter Spencer: CBT and GET do not cure ME, it is now time for biological research

Dr John H Greensmith
ME Free For All.org:

People affected by M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) will be comforted that Sir Peter Spencer puts it on the record that Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Graded Exercise Therapy (GET) are not cures for M.E. (ME myths, Letters, Scotsman, 23 February 2011); that he calls for more biological research and allocates a portion of Action for ME's funding to it, including the commendable development of a post-mortem tissue bank.

Many will wish he had had gone a step further and publicly accepted the evidence that CBT is ineffective and GET harmful for a majority of M.E. sufferers, some irreversibly; that, since Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and M.E. are not synonymous or interchangeable, treating people with M.E. in the same way as those with a variety of different illnesses having fatigue as a symptom is unhelpful for all; that he will pledge no more of AfME's budget to such psychosocial research and cease to promote or recommend referrals to the national network of clinics, in which only a mix of these two discredited treatments is offered.

Yours sincerely
Dr John H Greensmith
ME Free For All.org