There has been research on Vitamin C for cancer patients and CoQ-10 for inherited mitochondrial disorders. No one thinks these aren't 'serious illnesses' because there are OTC medications or supplements that can be helpful in addressing them. OTC supplementation studies and recommendations doesn't appear to have affected how serious people believe other conditions to be. I think our main issue lies elsewhere, with poor medical education and poor funding, not with the suggestion that ME -- like other illnesses -- can be affected by cheaper, easier to access medication.
Moreover, there is nothing special about OTC vs prescription medication in terms of what works best for patients -- it's an artificial division created by numerous factors and is only peripherally-related to the med's strength. I understand that a lot of people feel that if something a doctor didn't hand you made you feel better, you must not have been very sick, but this is an absolute fallacy.
I understand it's a widely-held one, though, and that it affects public perception if it shows we improved with a med we could get without resorting to a physician's help. But don't we all know, here on PR, that people DO improve without physicians' help, using OTC methods? I know there are some out there who have tried a wide variety of things and experienced no improvement, but the vast majority of us have found some supplement that has improved QOL. Do we want all patients to have to go through that ridiculous, laborious process of trying to determine what OTC meds help them when research can point physicians and patients to what is most likely to, if not cure patients, then help improve their lives? Something relatively cheap, and readily accessible?
I want research that helps patients figure out what to do to improve their QOL, and I find it immaterial whether the meds come from a doctor's hand or a shelf at the store. In many ways, I'd rather they came off the shelf, because so few physicians understand ME (and that won't change instantaneously), and because OTC meds are cheaper and don't depend on what insurance you do or don't have this week.
I'm concerned with the potential of a med to help patients and less with how it may look to others if we benefit from it.
Finally, Ron Davis's findings -- which most people are wild about, the survey says -- would support supplementation with OTC meds such as biotin, CoQ-10, and tryptophan to nudge the metabolic errors that have resulted (probably) from infectious damage to the mitochondria. Just because something is OTC doesn't mean it has no effect or should be dismissed.
If you don't believe OTC supplements can help people, or are worthy of research, it is easy to make your answers reflect that.
Speaking as an individual, of course, not as #MEAction.
