10 years ago, the Belgian government opened their five treatment centres for ME/CFS, the so-called reference centres, to cure 70% of ME/CFS patients with CBT and GET as that is what the Belgian Simon Wessely, psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Boudewijn Van Houdenhove, and his Nijmegen colleagues have been saying for decades.
The Belgian government invested a lot of money, €15 million, but they also reviewed things regularly.
Each review showed that CBT and GET were making things worse.
So, the centres got more time, and more money to improve things.
And after 10 years of treating ME/CFS patients with CBT and GET in five Belgian government centres, it is now crystal clear that CBT and GET make things worse in ME/CFS, which means that CBT and GET harm ME/CFS patients.
the do no harm principle is one of the main principles of medicine, and Revalidation of doctors, which has just started in the UK in the Shipman aftermath, is all about protecting patients against doctors who harm them.
so, the Belgian review of using CBT and GET for ME/CFS for 10 years in five government treatment centres has major implications for revalidation of doctors in the UK as this means that doctors who use and /or promote CBT and /or GET for ME/CFS should fail their revalidation.
See also: CFS Patients Try to Help Researchers Despite The Fact that Researchers try To Kill Them with CBT and GET
See also: Jan 2011, Spanish study shows that CBT and GET make things WORSE in ME/CFS !!!
See also: Journal for Psychotherapy 2011: CBT and GET are ineffective and potentially harmful for many ME/CFS patients
See also: Pacific Labs in California (Snell, Stevens et al): it is dangerous to put patients with M.E. through a graded exercise program
See also: Tom Kindlon's paper: "Reporting of Harms Associated with Graded Exercise Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"
See also: Post-exercise acid exposure 50 times higher in ME/CFS patients vs healthy controls, with no reduction with repeat exercise
See also: PACE trial's Prof Peter White: Exercise causes Immunological damage in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and is NOT safe
Doctor Speedy and ME in search of medical honesty
Beginning 2012 the state disability agency (RIZIV) pulled the plug. The "cfs-centers" would no longer get federal funding.
ReplyDeletePatients who are knowledgable cheered, knowing they served no purpose as to getting "cured".
However, our minister of Healt (Mrs Onkelinx) used her veto and let them continue (after getting enough info from patient advocates and organisations + objective evidence from 2 seperate evalutation reports).
A week ago we received the news that the "cfs-centers" will be able to continue their GBT/GET programs! This time they will receive even more funding for CBT and GET but patients will no longer have to go to the centers themselves. They will receive "cheques" from the centers and will be referred to psychologists and revalidation specialists closer to their homes.
So ... NOTHING has changed. Regardless of all the advocacy efforts, regardless of all the biomedical evidence, regardless of the 2 objective evaluations ...
The psycholobby won again and patients will have to endure these 2 therapies for another x years.
Still no money for biomedical research or therapies ...
This is Belgium, the land with one of the best healthcare systems in the world, the best hospitals etc.
This is Belgium, where me/cfs/fibro patients continue to be treated as medical parias.
We are totally digusted and fed up with it all ...
This sounds bad, as it might be less well possible to document the failure of such therapies if they are administered locally, by a large number of practitioners. What we all can do is to donate to the Rituximab research in Norway or in the USA and to advocate for such research in our own countries.
ReplyDeleteHi, where did you read these reports done by the beligian govt showing CBT and GET are more than unhelpful? Where can i read them? Such a report with scientific data would be brilliant. Please let me know where i can read them? Kirsten
ReplyDeleteMany of these patients also have EDS & POTS but due to false belief it's a psych problem, GP's don't refer them on for fear of confirming the patients misguided illness belief. I beg all ME/CFS patients to study EDS.
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