Yesterday, The Guardian published one of the most damning, accurate articles about “the greatest medical scandal of the 21st century” – the psychosomatic model of ME/CFS.
The mainstream media is generally quiet about the research fraud, financial deals, and shady individuals who crafted the psychosomatic narrative for their own personal & professional gain.
But Monbiot takes them to task, starting right from the 70s when the psychiatric lobby group took an interest in what was then consider purely organic disease, to the 2000s when the fraudulent PACE trial was published (which The Lancet still hasn’t retracted, by the way).
Even now, as he writes, “the new evidence-led thinking has yet to penetrate parts of the health system: some [I would argue, most] patients are still being mistreated”.
As someone who has been profoundly and irreparably harmed by Graded Exercise Therapy, having the truth published in a respected media outlet, is more than I expected to see in my lifetime. George’s conclusion that ME/CFS patients are owed “an apology and recognition of the harms they have suffered”, is long overdue.
Chronically Siobhan 