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AfME's New Principal Medical Adviser: Dr Miller (who promotes CBT and GET)

Orla

Senior Member
Messages
708
Location
Ireland
Don't be fooled by the Infectious Diseases stuff, this guy, and the Liverpool Clinic, are pure psycho-social school. I started a thread on Liverpool here a while ago,

http://tinyurl.com/4cyo4da

that drivel was being handed out under Milller (though he didn't write it).

http://www.afme.org.uk/news.asp?newsid=826&dm_i=1HO,4O8X,31IE1,EIR1,1

New Principal Medical Adviser

07 May 2010

Dr Alastair Miller joins Action for M.E.

Action for M.E. is very pleased to announce Dr Alastair Miller's appointment
as the charity's new Principal Medical Adviser, replacing Professor Tony
Pinching, who has become a Patron of Action for M.E.

Dr Miller, a physician trained in infectious disease and general medicine,
is currently an Infectious Disease Consultant at the Royal Liverpool
University Hospital.

Writing in the latest copy of InterAction, the charity's magazine, this
weekend, Dr Miller says:

"I became interested in M.E./CFS as a senior registrar in Birmingham in 1984
when my Professor used to admit many patients with M.E./CFS to the wards for
further assessment.

"In London the following year I saw many cases in the outpatient clinics and
so when I became a Consultant in the Navy I regularly saw patients with this
condition.

"When I became a Consultant in the West Midlands, I was already establishing
a multi disciplinary team to care for patients when the core Department of
Health funding became available and therefore we were one of the early teams
to become established (in Worcestershire).

"As a result of this experience I was asked to establish a diagnostic clinic
in Hereford. During this part of my career, I regularly gave talks and
seminars on M.E./CFS to GPs and other interested health care professionals.
I also spoke at several local M.E. group meetings.

"In 2005 I moved from Worcestershire to Liverpool and became an Infectious
Disease Consultant at The Royal Liverpool University Hospital. This was to
replace the infectious disease role played by my predecessor Dr Fred Nye who
had already established a highly regarded CFS service on Merseyside. He was
on the Collaborative Network of Clinical Champions (CNCC) for CFS and also
on the NICE guidelines writing committee. I worked alongside him in the CFS
service for two years until he retired fully in 2007. I became the Clinical
Lead for CFS services in 2006.

"I now lead a service that has three consultant physicians (all trained in
General Medicine and Infectious Disease) working in the diagnostic clinic
and a team of clinical psychologists, specialist nurses and occupational
therapists working in the therapy services. We see and assess 10 new
referrals each week from which about 60% go on into therapy services. I
continue to teach colleagues about M.E./CFS at every opportunity and have
ensured that the condition is included in the new proposed curriculum for
Infectious Disease Training.

"Our unit is actively involved in research. We had a poster presentation on
epidemiology and clinical features at the last national conference and hope
to participate in the proposed Genome Wide Association Study. I am on the
executive of the newly formed specialist society for M.E./CFS (BACME) and am
a scrutineer for the PACE trial.

"My personal view is that M.E./CFS is probably caused by a number of
different stimuli: genetic, environmental, infective, immunological, etc. It
is likely that there is more than one syndrome involved and phenotyping
M.E./CFS will become increasingly important.

"The current methods of management are imperfect but they are currently all
we have and I regard one of my roles to be persuading people with M.E. not
to waste money on unproven and potentially toxic treatments.

"I am committed to enhancing the patient experience of those afflicted with
M.E./CFS by the triple strategy of delivering an excellent clinical service,
facilitating good quality scientific research into the condition and
supporting education and training for all clinicians involved in the
management of this complex and challenging condition."

Action for M.E.'s Chief Executive, Sir Peter Spencer, says: "We are very
fortunate to have Dr Miller as our new Principal Medical Adviser. This vital
post is unpaid but carries considerable responsibilities for providing
balanced expert advice to our staff and Trustees in a particularly difficult
area of medicine. I very much look forward to working with Alastair.

"It is also timely to put on record my profound gratitude for the fantastic
support Action for M.E. received for so many years from Alastair's
predecessor - Professor Pinching. I was but one of the many who benefitted
greatly from his expert tuition, wise counsel and patient encouragement."

View Dr Miller's cv
http://www.afme.org.uk/res/img/resources/Dr Alistair Miller - CV.pdf
.
 

Orla

Senior Member
Messages
708
Location
Ireland
More on Alastair Miller

My emphasis below, by quakery he doesn't mean CBT and GET.

Quackery in the 21st Century: Unproven Treatments for Unexplained Symptoms
Alastair Miller MA FRCP DTM&H

Summary
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) otherwise called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) is a medically unexplained syndrome. That is, it is a well defined complex of symptoms that add up to this diagnosis but with no biomedical explanation at a physiological, anatomical, biochemical or molecular level to give a basis for these symptoms. However, there are well established therapeutic approaches (Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Graded Activity programmes) that are evidence based and approved by NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence). Regrettably, because these approaches are behavioural rather than pharmacologic there is much dissatisfaction with them in the patient community which therefore spends considerable time and money on unproven therapies exploited by well meaning or less well meaning practitioners.

Biography
Alastair Miller read medical sciences and law at St Johns College, Cambridge and completed clinical training at Westminster Hospital where he also worked as a house physician and surgeon. He then spent some time in the Royal Naval Medical Service including service with the Royal Marine Commadoes. He specialized as a physician in Naval Hospitals and trained in Infectious Disease at Birmingham and London. He held various consultant posts in Navy hospitals and was Naval Professor of Medicine in his last post.

He then spent nearly 10 years as a consultant physician in West Midlands with NHS appointments at Kidderminster and Worcester and an Honorary Senior Lecturer post at the Dept of Infection in Birmingham Medical School.

Since 2004 he has been consultant in the department of medicine and the Tropical & Infectious Disease Unit at Royal Liverpool University Hospital and an honorary Fellow at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He is lead for Bone infection and chronic fatigue services and also has major interests in blood borne virus infection. He chairs the Specialist Advisory Cttee on Infectious Disease at the London Royal College of Physicians and is Director of the Clinical Research Facility at Liverpool. His outside interests are mountaineering, sailing and adventure sports.

http://www.merseysideskeptics.org.uk/2009/10/skeptics-in-the-pub-november-19th-alastair-miller/
 
Messages
13,774
I was just thinking of re-joining AfME because of their benefits advice.

I think I'd be less opposed to Dr Miller than a lot of people here [edit: this was from 2010 - 2017 me realises how terrible Miller was/is], but this sort of thing pisses me off: "because these approaches are behavioural rather than pharmacologic there is much dissatisfaction with them in the patient community". How about "because many patients find these treatments to be ineffective..." - why is it seen as acceptable to be so dismissive of the concerns of those patients who have not found GET and CBT to be useful?
 
Last edited:

Orla

Senior Member
Messages
708
Location
Ireland
Interesting attitude of this Liverpool clinic

.....The assistant curtly responded that the current treatment
was successful.....The assistant said that she was no longer having the conversation and put the phone down

http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/meliverpool/message/36

The treatment was CBT and GET.

(You have to scroll down a few paragraphs to see the relevant part of this message. It starts with "Dot mentioned......". It is open access (though you might need yahoo ID). If I get the energy I'll ask for permission to repost the full relevant part of the message. It is well worth a look to see the shocking attitude of this clinic -it is even worse that I would expect, and I had a pretty low opinion of it to start off with!)

Orla
 

Dx Revision Watch

Suzy Chapman Owner of Dx Revision Watch
Messages
3,061
Location
UK
Action for M.E. (UK) New Medical Advisor

[Edit: Merged with Orla's thread on the same issue.]


In their e-newsletter, sent out today, Action for M.E. announced its new Medical Advisor following the stepping down of Prof Tony Pinching:

Our new Principal Medical Advisor

Action for M.E. is pleased to announce the appointment of new Principal Medical Advisor, Dr Alastair Miller. Dr Miller is currently a Consultant Physician in the department of Tropical & Infectious Diseases at Royal Liverpool University Hospital.
 

Dx Revision Watch

Suzy Chapman Owner of Dx Revision Watch
Messages
3,061
Location
UK
Links re: Dr Alastair Miller

http://readmeukevents.wordpress.com...r-alastair-miller-speaker-rsm-cfs-conference/

Correspondence with Dr Alastair Miller, speaker, RSM CFS Conference

[...]

"Turning to the conference itself I think it is excellent news that a distinguished body such as the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) should put on such a conference. Clearly there are a number of speakers from a mental health background but equally there are speakers and chairs from general practice, hospital medicine, rehabilitation and from patient groups so I would not regard the coverage as being unbalanced and I think it would be a great shame if patients views went unheard at the conference. I am thoroughly looking forward to participating and was delighted to be invited."

--------------------------

Dr Alistair Miller was a presenter at the Royal Society of Medicine Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Conference on 28 April 2008:

RSM Conference Resources

http://www.rsm.ac.uk/chronicfatigue08/index.php

Download Abstracts and Biographies [PDF 86k]
http://www.rsm.ac.uk/chronicfatigue08/abs.pdf

PowerPoint Slides:

What drugs can I use? [PDF 243k]
Dr Alastair Miller, Royal Liverpool University Hospital
http://www.rsm.ac.uk/chronicfatigue08/miller.pdf

Webcast of Presentation

What drugs can I use? Dr Alastair Miller
http://rsm.mediaondemand.net/player.aspx?EventID=1337

-----------------------

http://readmeukevents.wordpress.com/2008/03/23/rsm-cfs-conference-programme/

RSM CFS April 2008 Conference programme

Planning Committee: Dr John Scadding (Chair), Miss Bina Arpino, Professor Peter White, Professor Simon Wessley, Professor Kam Bhui, Professor Matthew Hotopf.

Ed: Ms Bina Arpino is a member of the RSM events admin staff, the others are all presenters at the conference or session chairs.

RSM CFS Conference programme

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Monday 28 April 2008

Venue:
The Royal Society of Medicine,
1 Wimpole Street
London,
W1G 0AE

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Monday 28 April 2008


Aims and Objectives:

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a common and debilitating illness which can persist for years. Despite extensive research, the nature and pathogenesis of the condition remain enigmatic. There is continuing uncertainty and controversy concerning the physical and psychological components that may contribute to the initiation and perpetuation of the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.

The guidelines published by NICE in August 2007 have met with a mixed response, but many have welcomed the development of evidence based advice about different treatment options.

The aim of this meeting is to take a broad look at chronic fatigue syndrome, examining its nature and definition, pathophysiology, epidemiology, clinical assessment and diagnosis, the patient perspective, and various approaches to treatment. This is a scientific conference and there will be an emphasis on an evidence based approach throughout.

Those attending the meeting will gain understanding of the various aspects of CFS being discussed, and be better able to help people suffering from this disabling condition.

The conference is intended for all health professionals who are involved in the assessment and treatment of those with CFS.

Planning Committee:
Dr John Scadding (Chair), Miss Bina Arpino, Professor Peter White, Professor Simon Wessley, Professor Kam Bhui, Professor Matthew Hotopf.

List of Contributors:

Dr John Scadding Dean, Royal Society of Medicine
Professor Peter White Barts & the London Queen Marys School of Medicine and Dentistry
Dr Anthony Cleare Institue of Psychiatry, London
Professor Simon Wessely Kings College London
Professor Anthony Pinching Peninsula Medical School
Professor Chris Dowrick Liverpool
Professor Matthew Hotopf Institute of Psychiatry, London
Professor Mansel Aylward Unum Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research, Cardiff University
Sir Peter Spencer Action for M.E.
Professor Richard Baker Leicester University
Professor Kam Bhui Department of Psychiatry, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry
Professor Rona Moss-Morris University of Southampton
Dr Alastair Miller Royal Liverpool University Hospital

Accreditation:
5 CPD points (Applied for)

9.25 am Registration and Coffee

9.50 am Welcome address
Dr John Scadding
Dean, Royal Society of Medicine

SESSION ONE
Chair: Dr John Scadding
Dean, Royal Society of Medicine

9.55 am What is Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and what is ME?
Professor Peter White
Barts & the London, Queen Marys Schoolof Medicine and Dentistry

10.20 am Questions

10.25 am Pathophysiology
Dr Anthony Cleare
Institue of Psychiatry, London

10.50 am Questions

10.55 am Epidemiology
Professor Simon Wessely
Kings College London

11.20 am Questions

11.25 am Open discussion

11.40 am Coffee

SESSION TWO
Chair: Professor Anthony Pinching
Peninsula Medical School

12.05 pm Assessment: general practitioners approach
Professor Chris Dowrick
University of Liverpool

12.30 pm Questions

12.35 pm Assessment: psychiatrists approach
Professor Matthew Hotopf
Institute of Psychiatry, London

1.00 pm Questions

1.05 pm Lunch

SESSION THREE
Chair: Professor Mansel Aylward CB
Director, Unum Centre for Psychosocial and Disability Research, Cardiff University

2.00 pm M.E. The patient persepective
Sir Peter Spencer
Action for M.E.

2.25 pm Questions

2.30 pm Management: NICE Guidelines
Professor Richard Baker
Leicester University

2.55 pm Questions

3.00 pm Tea

SESSION FOUR:
Chair: Professor Kam Bhui
Department of Psychiatry, Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry

3.30 pm CBT and GET
Professor Rona Moss-Morris
University of Southampton

3.55 pm Questions

4.05 pm What drugs can I use?
Dr Alastair Miller Royal
Liverpool University Hospital

4.30 pm Questions

4.35 pm Open discussion

5.00 pm Close of meeting
 

Dx Revision Watch

Suzy Chapman Owner of Dx Revision Watch
Messages
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Location
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Correspondence with Dr Alastair Miller, speaker, RSM CFS Conference

Correspondence with Dr Alastair Miller, speaker, RSM CFS Conference (archived from April 2008)

Jill Pigott, Worcestershire ME Group, has published some comment and correspondence with Dr Alastair Miller who will be speaking on “What drugs can I use?” at the RSM CFS Conference on 28 April.

It was Dr Miller who had expected that people with ME and their carers would be involved in the conference (see ME Association statement on RSM conference).

Dr Miller says that he hopes that proceedings of the RSM’s Conference will be published. I have been advised by the RSM that “No places are being granted to ME / CFS charities or patient organisations, and the meeting is not open to the Press” and that “There are no plans to make a transcript of the meeting available to the public”. Action for ME says “[AfME] will report the proceedings of the conference to its members”.

The RSM is said to have climbed down on its decision not to grant permission to the ME Association to have a stand at this conference. The MEA has issued no amendment to its earlier statement on the issue of its requesting a stand; until a public statement of confirmation has been issued by the MEA then I cannot confirm this development.

Permission to Repost

From Jill Pigott

Dr Alastair Miller, who will be speaking on “What drugs can I use?” at the RSM Conference, had expected pwme [people with ME] and carers of pwme to be involved. I wrote to Alastair Miller, Consultant Physician, Tropical & Infectious Disease Unit at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital. Until May 2005 he was the Specialist in Infectious Diseases (with an interest in ME) at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS trust.

I am forwarding a message received from Alastair Miller – he said “delighted for it to be disseminated as widely as you like. Alastair Miller told me that at the time when he wrote his ‘original’ message, he “had not appreciated it was for health professionals only”. So he had accepted an invitation to speak at this conference, expecting pwme to be involved. (He also gave permission for this original to be reposted.)

Alastair Miller’s ‘original’ final paragraph:

I am thoroughly looking forward to participating and was delighted to be invited. I would urge folk from the ME/CFS “activist” / patient / carer community to attend with an open mind and participate in what I am sure will be an excellent meeting that will enhance our understanding of this perplexing condition and help us all to work together and help our numerous patients recover from this devastating illness. Best wishes – I hope to see you there.

Dr Alastair Miller’s amended message:

Thanks Jill

You will be well aware of my views (as I have expressed them many times when I was in Worcestershire) that the ongoing debate about whether CFS/ME is primarily a condition of disordered psychology or disordered physiology is a sterile one and an unwelcome distraction from what should be our core business of researching, diagnosing and caring for patients with CFS/ME. As someone who has been involved in this area for over 20 years I do not hold strong views on either side of the debate and indeed I do not even think there should be a debate.

There is no doubt in real life clinical practice that there are many patients who have serious symptoms of CFS/ME with absolutely no suggestion of any psychopathology; there are also large numbers of patients who have severe psychological problems and there are many in whom psychological and physical problems are inextricably intertwined. In years to come we may develop more sensitive tools to classify these different categories and have different therapeutic approaches.

The reality right now is that we do not have any evidenced based approaches other than CBT and GET to help our patients and these techniques are helpful to many of our patients – not everyone and I do accept that in some cases they may worsen the situation but that is true of many conditions and many therapeutic interventions. Equally we know that CBT may help symptoms in many other situations – for example, it is of benefit in some patients with cancer and nobody would claim that cancer is a psychological condition.

Turning to the conference itself – I think it is excellent news that a distinguished body such as the Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) should put on such a conference. Clearly there are a number of speakers from a mental health background but equally there are speakers and chairs from general practice, hospital medicine, rehabilitation and from patient groups so I would not regard the coverage as being “unbalanced” and I think it would be a great shame if patients’ views went unheard at the conference. I am thoroughly looking forward to participating and was delighted to be invited.

I am sure that many differing views will be expressed in a frank and open way and I assume that the proceedings will be published. I hope folk from the ME/CFS patient/carer/”activist” community will view this conference with an open mind and a forum where genuine debate about this perplexing condition will take place so that we can all work together to overcome the effects of this devastating illness.
Best wishes

Alastair
Dr ALASTAIR MILLER MA FRCP DTM&H
Consultant Physician
Tropical & Infectious Disease Unit
Royal Liverpool University Hospital

Dr Alastair Miller had received the 25% Group and Tymes Trust statements before he sent his message.

----------------

http://readmeukevents.wordpress.com...position-statement-on-the-rsm-cfs-conference/

25% ME Group position statement on the RSM CFS Conference

The 25% M.E. Group

We are taking a position of no compromise when it comes to the Royal Society of Medicine Conference on CFS which is being held on 28 April 2008 in London.

We are also astounded to note that some other M.E. organisations are either advertising (and/or supporting) this conference which is mainly taking a psychiatric view of the disease.

Let’s make a stand in condemning this conference and any M.E. organisation who are supporting this event!

Please see our Statement printed below:

STATEMENT FROM THE 25% ME GROUP ON THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE CONFERENCE ON CFS – APRIL 28 2008

NO COMPROMISE

The 25% ME Group cannot condone the promotion of any psychosocial (CBT and/or GET) management regime as the primary intervention in cases of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. (ME)

The existing evidence from surveys of over 3,000 patients suggests that such regimes are of limited value and at worst are harmful, leading to increased illness and disablement.

The 25% ME Group stands uncompromisingly for the truth that ME is a World Health Organization classified neurological (ICD10:G93.3) multisystem, physical disease, not a subgroup of any fatigue syndrome. We cannot support any organisation that promotes or supports the inappropriate and dangerous psychosocial model of M.E.

As chairman of the 25% ME Group, I am very distressed to see any ME charity advertising, promoting and supporting the RSM April psychiatric conference on “CFS”. Furthermore I am concerned that they have not highlighted the important biomedical conferences to be held in London (Invest in ME) and Cambridge (ME Research UK), where leading researchers into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis will present new biomedical findings.

I also feel there is no justification for the CEO of AfME to be speaking at the RSM conference, as I believe it will not benefit patients with ME and implies patient-backed validity to psychiatric involvement in ME.

The 25% severe ME group once again calls for Government funding for urgent research into the biomedical underpinnings of ME. It is only by such research that the causes of – and hopefully the cure for this devastating disease will be found. There can be no compromise on this.

11/3/2008

25% ME GROUP

21 Church Street
Troon
Ayrshire
KA10 6SQ

enquiry@25megroup.org

www.25megroup.org

Please support us in this stance as it affects you personally and members of your organisation
 

Dx Revision Watch

Suzy Chapman Owner of Dx Revision Watch
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Skeptics in the Pub: November 19th Alastair Miller

http://www.merseysideskeptics.org.uk/2009/10/skeptics-in-the-pub-november-19th-alastair-miller/

Skeptics in the Pub: November 19th Alastair Miller


Quackery in the 21st Century: Unproven Treatments for Unexplained Symptoms
Alastair Miller MA FRCP DTM&H

When: Thu, Nov 19, 2009 8:00 11:00 PM
Where: Crown Hotel, 43 Lime Street, Liverpool.

Summary
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) otherwise called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) is a medically unexplained syndrome. That is, it is a well defined complex of symptoms that add up to this diagnosis but with no biomedical explanation at a physiological, anatomical, biochemical or molecular level to give a basis for these symptoms. However, there are well established therapeutic approaches (Cognitive Behavior Therapy and Graded Activity programmes) that are evidence based and approved by NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence). Regrettably, because these approaches are behavioural rather than pharmacologic there is much dissatisfaction with them in the patient community which therefore spends considerable time and money on unproven therapies exploited by well meaning or less well meaning practitioners.

Biography
Alastair Miller read medical sciences and law at St Johns College, Cambridge and completed clinical training at Westminster Hospital where he also worked as a house physician and surgeon. He then spent some time in the Royal Naval Medical Service including service with the Royal Marine Commadoes. He specialized as a physician in Naval Hospitals and trained in Infectious Disease at Birmingham and London. He held various consultant posts in Navy hospitals and was Naval Professor of Medicine in his last post.

He then spent nearly 10 years as a consultant physician in West Midlands with NHS appointments at Kidderminster and Worcester and an Honorary Senior Lecturer post at the Dept of Infection in Birmingham Medical School.

Since 2004 he has been consultant in the department of medicine and the Tropical & Infectious Disease Unit at Royal Liverpool University Hospital and an honorary Fellow at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He is lead for Bone infection and chronic fatigue services and also has major interests in blood borne virus infection. He chairs the Specialist Advisory Cttee on Infectious Disease at the London Royal College of Physicians and is Director of the Clinical Research Facility at Liverpool. His outside interests are mountaineering, sailing and adventure sports.
 

Bob

Senior Member
Messages
16,455
Location
England (south coast)
Dr Alastair Miller’s amended message:

... You will be well aware of my views (as I have expressed them many times when I was in Worcestershire) that the ongoing debate about whether CFS/ME is primarily a condition of disordered psychology or disordered physiology is a sterile one and an unwelcome distraction from what should be our core business of researching, diagnosing and caring for patients with CFS/ME. As someone who has been involved in this area for over 20 years I do not hold strong views on either side of the debate and indeed I do not even think there should be a debate.

There is no doubt in real life clinical practice that there are many patients who have serious symptoms of CFS/ME with absolutely no suggestion of any psychopathology; there are also large numbers of patients who have severe psychological problems and there are many in whom psychological and physical problems are inextricably intertwined. In years to come we may develop more sensitive tools to classify these different categories and have different therapeutic approaches.

The reality right now is that we do not have any evidenced based approaches other than CBT and GET to help our patients and these techniques are helpful to many of our patients – not everyone and I do accept that in some cases they may worsen the situation but that is true of many conditions and many therapeutic interventions. Equally we know that CBT may help symptoms in many other situations – for example, it is of benefit in some patients with cancer and nobody would claim that cancer is a psychological condition ...

...

Alastair
Dr ALASTAIR MILLER MA FRCP DTM&H
Consultant Physician
Tropical & Infectious Disease Unit
Royal Liverpool University Hospital

Well, it looks like we can write off AfME for the next few years then...
Unless they are going to start advocating separating CFS and ME, using stricter criteria, or diagnosing subsets of CFS/ME, then this man is going to continue to promote psychological therapies for ME, and to continue to promote research into, and psychological treatments for, a heterogeneous mess of a syndrome.

I'm really disappointed, reading the letter above... I thought he was supposed to work in an infectious disease unit... but how can you promote treating infectious diseases with CBT? The mind boggles.

I'm very sad that AfME is continuing with this approach... I had optimism that they would change their ways over the next year.
 

Dx Revision Watch

Suzy Chapman Owner of Dx Revision Watch
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...I'm really disappointed, reading the letter above... I thought he was supposed to work in an infectious disease unit... but how can you promote treating infectious diseases with CBT? The mind boggles.

Miller's predecessor, Dr Fred Nye was also a Consultant Physician in Infectious Disease.

Remember that appalling Job Vacancy that Liverpool CSF Service issued in 2005 that was pulled following complaints?


http://listserv.nodak.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0502b&L=co-cure&F=&S=&P=7670

Sun, 13 Feb 2005

From: Suzy Chapman


ACT: An interview with Prof. Tony Pinching [1]


[...]


Job vacancy 1:

Employer: Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust

Job title: Trainee Clinical Fatigue Therapist

Chronic Fatigue Treatment Service

Ref: 2570

For informal enquiries please contact Pauline Powell or Fran Morgan, Senior
Therapists www.rlbuht.nhs.uk.

Closing date: 31st January 2005

"The service has a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) that provides a unique
treatment which involves explanation of symptoms, self-managed graded
exercise, psychological support and motivation to patients with chronic
fatigue syndrome. Improvements in health are achieved and results are
monitored."

"WORKING ENVIRONMENT

1. Psychological treatment involves delivering a highly complex
understanding of the psychological, physiological and social factors of CFS
to severely disabled, fatigued patients and relatives, in order to change
perpetuating illness behaviour and motivate patients to perform a
self-managed activity programme, regulate disturbed sleep patterns and
modify predisposing personality style.

2. Clients with CFS, because of their chronically fatigued state,
experience barriers to understanding. For some clients there can be
significant barriers to accepting the changes needed in behaviour, which
have to be overcome in therapy in order to facilitate a successful outcome.

3. The post holder can be required to work frequently in an emotive
and demanding environment with exposure to distressing problems and must
maintain a high degree of professionalism at all times.

4. Requires intense concentration and prolonged periods of sitting

[Ed: Poor souls - all that sitting!]

whilst assessing and providing psychological therapy for clients with CFS.
Individual treatment sessions are up to 2 hours long, twice weekly group
sessions are 3 hours in length, and frequent counselling phone call sessions
are up to one hour long.

[Ed: Three hours of CBT!!!!]

5. As some clients with CFS may be resistant to working in a
psychological framework there may be exposure to verbal aggression.

[Ed: We particularly liked that bit.]

6. Clients are frequently seen on a one to one basis without other
staff immediately nearby."

[Ed: Goodness me! Are ME patients really that volatile?]


[Ed: followed by a second Job Vacancy for Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust which was just as bad, followed by "An interview with Prof. Tony Pinching"]
 

Min

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I've been trying to find a copyright free image of a flying pig.

8.gif