response from: angliameaction.org.uk Subject: [CO-CURE] ACT: PLEASE CAN WE SEE OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE OF THREATS AGAINST PROFESSOR WESSELY?
PLEASE CAN WE SEE THE OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE OF WIDESPREAD M.E. PATIENT
"THREATS" AGAINST PROFESSOR SIMON WESSELY?
To whom it may concern,
Re the recent award of the John Maddox Prize to Professor Simon Wessely
for 'standing up for science': /*"*/Simon Wessely, Professor of
Psychological Medicine at Kings College London, is awarded the Prize for
his ambition and courage in the field of ME (chronic fatigue syndrome)
and Gulf War syndrome, and the way he has dealt bravely with
intimidation and harassment when speaking about his work and that of
colleagues./*"*/[1]
Professor Wessely, and sections of the media, have previously claimed
that he has been the object of death threats[2]. The widespread press
coverage of which in 2011 just happened to coincide with the publication
of an International Expert Consensus Panel document[3]. That ME
International Consensus Criteria (ME-ICC) document eruditely refuted
much of what Professor Wessely has claimed with regard to both the
nature of and the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of the
serious neurological disease that is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).
One of the authors of the ME-ICC document, Dr Terry Mitchell, was until
recently one of the most experienced consultant NHS ME specialists in
the UK - having cared for tens of thousands of ME patients over many
years. He had previously expressed grave concerns about Professor
Wessely's favoured CBT/GET 'treatments', the unrepresentative nature of
the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
guideline development group on 'CFS/ME' and its apparent skewed
appraisal of the scientific evidence base[4]. Along with other
documentation[5], objective study of material produced by said
international panel would, I believe, considerably undermine the case
for Professor Wessely being awarded a prize for scientific excellence
with regard to "ME (chronic fatigue syndrome)".
Turning to the matter of alleged threats against Professor Wessely and
given the associated grave accusations of widespread abuse from the ME
community. Is it not time that questions were asked in parliament and
elsewhere demanding conclusive proof of these alleged threats against
him? Have such matters been investigated by the Police and been shown to
have any substantial basis to them? Is there for example actual evidence
of Police issuing warnings to individuals from the ME community? Has the
Crown Prosecution Service ever issued court proceedings against any such
individual from the ME community? If independent evidence of individuals
threatening violence does exist, are they many in number and can they be
fairly described as being representative of the ME community?
Claims of such threats, are not only thus far Iacking publicly
verifiable supportive evidence to my knowledge, they are lacking
perspective. It feels to me like Professor Wessely and sections of the
media are effectively daemonising an entire generation of unfortunate
people with serious WHO-classified (ICD-10-G93.3) neurological
illness[6]. All because, as far as I am aware, perhaps a few so far
unnamed, unrepresentative individuals have allegedly issued threats
against his personal safety.
There most certainly is however to my knowledge evidence available for
public scrutiny that Professor Wessely has misrepresented both the
nature of the disease that is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and its
World Health Organisation (WHO) classification and nomenclature[7].
There is also serious evidence that the kind of psychosocial views on
"ME (chronic fatigue syndrome)" advocated by Professor Wessely and his
colleagues have had very unfortunate consequences for patients[8].
It would clearly be wrong for any person with ME to issue a credible
threat of bodily harm to anyone. Is it not however understandable that
vulnerable patients will express different orders of frustration if
irresponsible misrepresentation has in fact been done by someone who has
a professional duty of care and scientific accuracy? Moreover, there is
a world of difference between patients venting understandable
frustration and patients actually issuing threats of bodily harm. Do we
not need objective evidence to show that Professor Wessely's claims of
"intimidation" properly differentiates between the two? We also clearly
need assurance that Professor Wessely and his media friends
differentiate between abusive threats and legitimate erudite complaints
regarding alleged professional and scientific misconduct[9]. Do not all
medical professionals, particularly those receiving substantial public
funding, need to be properly accountable to professional and public bodies?
In summary, if there is any hard evidence that ME patients have actually
gone beyond venting frustration and have issued actual "threats"
regarding Professor Wessely's personal safety then the extent and
objectivity of that evidence needs to be independently verified and put
into proper context and perspective? It is not right that tens of
thousands of innocent and vulnerable patients are associated with the
alleged misdemeanors of a few and denied appropriate biomedical care
that is increasingly justified by good science[10].
Anglia ME Action [UK], 7 November 2012.
contact@angliameaction.org.uk
REFERENCES:
[1] Source, Sense about Science, November 6, 2012:
http://www.senseaboutscience.org/pages/2012-maddox-prize.html
[2] On BBC Radio 4, Friday, 29 July 2011, for example:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9550000/9550947.stm
[3] Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: International Consensus Criteria
[ME-ICC], Carruthers et al, Journal of Internal Medicine, 2011. Doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428x:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428.x/abstract
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428.x/pdf
Also see the important 2012 follow-up document from the
International Consensus Panel:
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis -- Adult & Paediatric: International Consensus
Primer for Medical Practitioners, Carruthers et al, International
Consensus Panel, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9739335-3-6:
www.angliameaction.org.uk/docs/ME-ICC-Primer-2012.pdf
[4] Dr Terry Mitchell, witness statement to the UK High Court, 23 June 2008:
http://www.angliameaction.org.uk/NICEJRdocs/Terry_Mitchell_WS.pdf
[5] See, for example, documentation at the 'ME Action UK' website:
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/
[6] 'ME/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (benign)' is classified along with
'PVFS/Postviral Fatigue Syndrome' by the World Health Organization (WHO)
in the tenth revision of 'The International Statistical Classification
of Diseases and Related Health Problems' (ICD-10) in chapter VI,
diseases of the nervous system, other disorders of the nervous system,
other disorders of the brain (G93.3) - ICD-10-G93.3. See:
http://apps.who.int.classifications/icd10/browse/2010/en
[7] See for example the many documented reports and sources of Professor
Wessely's statements and claims at the 'ME Action UK' website:
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/
[8] See for example the case of Sophia Mirza in 2005, a young ME patient
who was accused of exaggerating and misattributing her illness, was
forcibly removed into psychiatric 'care' and died shortly after from
renal failure. The subsequent autopsy revealed considerable damage to
her central nervous system along with other serious physical pathologies
long associated with ME:
http://www.sophiaandme.org.uk/
http://www.sophiaandme.org.uk/docsindex/212.jpg
[9] Such as, for example, Professor Malcolm Hooper's concerns with the
widely criticised MRC-funded 'PACE Trial into CFS/ME' - see:
http://www.meactionuk.org.uk/COMPLAINT-to-Lancet-re-PACE.htm
http://meactionuk.org.uk/Update-on-the-PACE-Trial-110712.htm
http://meactionuk.org.uk/Further_Articles.htm
[10] See for example the Website of 'Invest in ME' a national UK charity
running fully accredited annual scientific conferences in Westminster:
http://www.investinme.org/index.htm
And see:
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: International Consensus Criteria [ME-ICC],
Carruthers et al, Journal of Internal Medicine, 2011. Doi:
10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428x:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428.x/abstract
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2011.02428.x/pdf
Also see the important 2012 follow-up document from the
International Consensus Panel:
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis -- Adult & Paediatric: International Consensus
Primer for Medical Practitioners, Carruthers et al, International
Consensus Panel, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9739335-3-6:
www.angliameaction.org.uk/docs/ME-ICC-Primer-2012.pdf
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