ME Action blog report: Save the Gottfries Clinic

Gottfries, the leading clinic in Sweden for ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia has come under government scrutiny for treating patients using a “biomedical” approach.

Politicians in Gothenburg have decided not to renew its contract with Gottfries, which allows patients to seek treatment at the clinic under the country’s national healthcare system.

Instead, they plan to announce a new procurement for the treatment of “medically unexplained symptoms” (MUS), using a “biopsychosocial” approach. Their view is that ME/CFS and fibromyalgia are not separate diagnoses but belong to a group of illnesses called functional somatic syndromes, i.e., psychosomatic disorders. The premise is that these disorders should be treated with various forms of psychotherapy.

Gottfries was founded by a Swedish professor of psychiatry who came to view ME as a physical disease involving immune dysfunction after a pandemic of Asian flu left hundreds with debilitating fatigue.

ME Action have organised a petition to ask the Swedish government to renew the contract and treat ME as a serious physical condition.