{"id":33362,"date":"2021-11-04T20:57:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T20:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/?p=33362"},"modified":"2021-11-08T10:58:39","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T10:58:39","slug":"nice-me-cfs-guideline-doctors-leaders-reject-evidence-based-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wames.org.uk\/cms-english\/nice-me-cfs-guideline-doctors-leaders-reject-evidence-based-change\/","title":{"rendered":"NICE ME\/CFS guideline \u2013 doctors\u2019 leaders reject \u2018evidence based\u2019 change"},"content":{"rendered":"

NICE 2021 ME\/CFS guideline –\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Doctors\u2019 leaders reject \u2018evidence based\u2019 change, but many believe the guideline can be transformative<\/strong><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the whole patients are relieved that the revised NICE guideline for ME\/CFS<\/a> has at last been published and are pleased with the change in direction it has taken i.e. that Post Exertional Malaise (PEM) is now a defining characteristic, and that Graded Exercise Therapy (GET) & Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) are no longer seen as curative treatments, with GET being recognised as having caused harm to patients. Some doctors, health professionals and researchers on the other hand have been vehement in their opposition to the changes.<\/p>\n

NICE took unprecedented steps to accommodate health professionals who had difficulties with the final version of the guideline by: delaying publication<\/a>; listening to their concerns<\/a> in a \u2018Roundtable\u2019 discussion; and altering some of the language<\/a> in the final guideline.<\/p>\n

Medical leaders’ joint statement<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"drThis was not enough to appease them and following publication of the guideline a number of major UK medical organisations issued a scathing joint statement<\/a> showing their lack of support for the guideline. The co-signatories of the statement represent thousands of medical personnel (though they were not consulted about the statement) and many CFS services that practise the discredited and now outlawed therapies of GET and CBT as treatments for ME\/CFS.<\/p>\n

The organisations opposed to the guideline are: Royal College of Physicians; Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh; Royal College of General Practitioners; Royal College of Psychiatrists; Academy of Medical Royal Colleges; Faculty of Sport and Exercise Med<\/p>\n

Their statement emphasises their belief that:<\/p>\n