Dr Nicole Phillips stepping down as medical advisor/medical editor from ME/CFS Australia (VicTasNT)

[Dolphin]

I read in Emerge Vol 32 No 2 that Dr Nicole Phillips is stepping down as medical advisor and medical editor from ME/CFS Australia (VicTasNT).

She is a psychiatrist who has had CFS herself.

In the previous issue she had written:

"We need more research funding to be put into investigating these issues. Right from my early involvement with ME/CFS, I made the bold statement that "bugs" are behind this illness. We have found this in medicine time and time again, that microorganisms can exert acute and chronic, extremely nasty effects right throughout the body.

Many believe that conditions with a currently unknown cause will eventually be put down one day to bugs. It is pertinent to remember that the H. pylori bug story and stomach ulcers. When I was a medical student the idea that these ulcers could be caused by a microorganism would have been laughed at and, even after medical proof was clearly irrefutable, it took doctors a long time to accept this new information as a new truth."

I found the comments reassuring. Generally I think people who believe bugs could be the basis of ME/CFS don't tend to be taken into much by psychobabble.

I recall also reading some critical comments of hers about the PACE Trial.

Like nearly every doctor, I imagine some people (incl. myself) may have disagreed with some of her views, but overall it seems it could be a loss if she doesn't maintain an interest in ME/CFS.

 

[roxie60]

Is there more we she writes about how the illness has impacted her and her patients??? It would be nice to see more professionals write about their experiences like Titlebaum and Peligrino. I read them and I knew they understood since it has impacted their lives.