Here is my letter to fst journal for archives.
Happy New Year to you.
Susanna
----- Original Message -----
*From:* Susanna <mailto:susannaa@dodo.com.au>
*To:* fstjournal@foundation.org.uk <mailto:fstjournal@foundation.org.uk>
*Sent:* Tuesday, January 03, 2012 5:56 PM
*Subject:* Health in mind and body, Simon Wessely
Dear Editor,
Re: Health in mind and body,
Simon Wessely, fst journal December 2011
http://www.foundation.org.uk/journal/pdf/fst_20_07.pdf
In this article Prof. Wessely repeats the assumptions about Chronis=20
Fatigue Syndrome which he has been voicing for some time.
The problem is that people referred to as having CFS have been ambushed=20
by a serious, chronic illness which medical science has not yet come to=20
grips with.Prof. Wessely and his colleagues have determined that this=20
can=C2=92t happen.(The same was said of Helicobacter Pylori.)CFS has been=
=20
declared by these psychiatrists to be =C2=91unexplained=C2=92 by medicine=
and the=20
leap was made to the default diagnosis of a psychological condition. No=20
evidence has been produced of this and the psychiatric label has been=20
slapped on patients far and wide who have never been examined.Evidence=20
of serious biomedical problems in these patients has been resolutely=20
ignored.Where is the science?
Prof. Wessely makes some well-worn claims:
- =C2=91Patients are portrayed as hostile to psychological explanation;=20
etc.This is because they have been given the wrong diagnosis, one which=20
sidesteps patients=C2=92 severe physical symptoms and ignores the fact th=
at=20
many of them don=C2=92t suffer from psychopathological conditions.
- =C2=91the (PACE) trial is a thing of beauty=C2=92: only if you ignore i=
ts=20
glaring faults, such a miscellaneous, unrepresentative sample and the=20
shifting of goal-posts in the course of the study, to name just a few=20
problems.
- =C2=91We now have two treatments that we can recommend with confidence =
to=20
our patients.=C2=92: only if you ignore the adverse reactions of patients=
=20
upon whom the CBT/GET treatments are foisted without any warning of risk=20
that they can worsen your health, which GET has certainly done.There is=20
enough evidence that graded exercise is an unsuitable treatment for this=20
condition. It is only a matter of listening to patients and the research=20
evidence.It is reckless to subject patients to this treatment.The FINE=20
study, which tests the same hypothesis, by the same investigators,=20
produced no evidence of worthwhile gain from GET. It is conveniently=20
forgotten by Prof. Wessely.
Perhaps the failure of patients to get better from GET would be=20
explained by Prof Wessely=C2=92s speculation that patients are too stubbo=
rn=20
and do not want to get well. Any such claim only illustrates the=20
professors=C2=92 refusal to admit any evidence which fails to confirm his=
=20
favourite beliefs.
It is notable that Prof. Wessely=C2=92s peers have declined to subject th=
e=20
PACE study to rigorous scientific scrutiny. His say-so diagnosis in=20
relation to CFS seems to be accepted as dogma.How is it that he and his=20
colleagues are exempt from critical scientific scrutiny?Have his peers=20
actually examined the PACE study in detail?When a study of this standard=20
passes as good science there are reasons for losing confidence in=20
scientific standards.
Yet, when patients or their representative have provided critiques of=20
the study they have been denigrated and abused.The Wessely school of=20
belief about CFS, the PACE study and the conclusions that are drawn from=20
them are not just academic questions to patients. Their lives are=20
affected for the worse by them.
Susanna Agardy
Australia
--=20
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