myalgic encephalomyelitis

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Psychogenic ME/CFS: Turning the Nostalgia Up to Eleven

Some examples of comedy are jarringly impactful precisely because they feel so authentic. A personal favourite of mine is the 1984 movie This is Spinal Tap, the legendary mockumentary depicting a fictional English rock band attempting to rescue their dwindling reputations by organising one last big-splash concert tour. It is […]

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New Treatment Guideline, Same Old Denialism

Last Monday, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) held its much anticipated roundtable discussion event, ostensibly to appease those (few) medical stakeholders who had baulked at the newly developed treatment guideline for ME/CFS. Regular readers will be aware that NICE developed its guideline over several years […]

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Journalists covering ME/CFS: Don’t ask about the new NICE guideline, ask about the old one

To fully understand the future, it is important to know the past. Next week, we finally get to see that long awaited new NICE treatment guideline for ME/CFS. As regular readers will know, all indications so far suggest the new guideline will be dramatically different from the old one. Graded […]

How illnesses become psychologised: Long COVID, ME, and the ‘All-In-Your-Head’ cartel

I was delighted to be part of this panel discussion on Gez Medinger‘s YouTube channel, RUN-DMC. As many readers will know, Gez is a London-based film producer and director who has been debilitated with severe Long COVID ever since contracting Covid early in the pandemic. His YouTube channel is now […]

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Is it just me, or is the BMJ’s take on those NICE guideline committee resignations maybe a little biased?

The BMJ are reporting that four members of NICE’s guideline committee on ME/CFS have stood down. One is the medical advisor of the ME Association, who stated yesterday that he found it too difficult to combine membership of the committee with his wish to comment publicly in the media about […]