Dr Bruce Carruthers condemns NICE 'CFS/ME' Guideline

WITNESS STATEMENT OF DR BRUCE CARRUTHERS FOR FRASER & SHORT V NICE.

Dear All,

In his witness statement provided for Douglas Fraser and Kevin Short for the UK High Court Judicial Review of the NICE 'CFS/ME' Guideline (CG53) Dr Bruce Carruthers, lead author of the International ('Canadian') ME Diagnostic & Treatment Protocols thoroughly dissects, assesses and then condemns the Guideline. In conclusion he unequivocally states the following:

"The NICE document does not aid the clinician by offering guidance about the defining symptomatology of ME/CFS as an aid to diagnosis and treatment: all it does is to offer a cook-book diagnostic process that must be followed, and then it recommends two non-specific behavioural approaches that are not treatment-based and which are non-specific to the disorder under review.

Overall, the process and the resulting Guideline are, in my opinion, detrimental to both patients' best interests and to best clinical practice.

The present Guideline cannot by any standards be considered as providing "best practice advice on the care of people with CFS/ME" nor is it "based on the best available evidence" as it claims. In my opinion it should be withdrawn."

Such outright international condemnation from someone of Dr Carruthers' professional standing and experience ought to ring alarm bells in any right-minded person. Dr Carruthers' full witness statement for Fraser & Short is now published with his permission. It is available now as a .pdf download at the web addresses below.

Best wishes,

Kevin Short.
contact@angliameaction.org.uk