General practitioners' perceptions of ME/CFS and beliefs about its management, as laid out by members of the Wessely school: qualitative study of subversion (Abstract)
Rapid response to:
Primary Care
General practitioners' perceptions of chronic fatigue syndrome and beliefs about its management, compared with irritable bowel syndrome: qualitative study
General practitioners' perceptions of ME/CFS and beliefs about its management, as laid out by members of the Wessely school: qualitative study of subversion (Abstract)
Objectives - To compare general practitioners' perceptions of ME/CFS
and to consider the implications for patients.
Design - Qualitative analysis of transcripts of BMJ Rapid Responses.
Participants and setting - A randomly selected sample of Rapid
Responses in the BMJ
Results - Doctors who favour the Wessely schools' functional somatic
theory tended to stereotype patients with ME/CFS as having certain
undesirable traits. This stereotyping was due to a lack of empathy for
sufferers and contempt for the Hippocratic oath; ignorance of the
neurological classification (G93.3): a systematic denigration of a
neurological disease by those with a clear conflict of interest: the
(F48.0) mis-classification of ME/CFS by members of the Wessely school, and
a subsequent 'non-disease' poll in the BMJ. These factors have led to
difficulties for many general practitioners in managing patients with
ME/CFS.
Conclusions - Barriers to the sound research and clinical management
of patients with ME/CFS are partly due to doctors' faulty illness beliefs,
which result in negative stereotyping of patients with ME/CFS, and partly
the BMJ for not taking into account the best available evidence. The
consequence of these barriers have led to a contempt for sufferers which
can only be described as being tantamount to abuse.
Competing interests:
Struggling to survive on £43 per week since September after being refused Incapacity Benefit because of doctors' faulty illness beliefs - currently waiting an appeal.
Rapid Response:
General practitioners' perceptions of ME/CFS and beliefs about its management, as laid out by members of the Wessely school: qualitative study of subversion (Abstract)
Objectives - To compare general practitioners' perceptions of ME/CFS
and to consider the implications for patients.
Design - Qualitative analysis of transcripts of BMJ Rapid Responses.
Participants and setting - A randomly selected sample of Rapid
Responses in the BMJ
Results - Doctors who favour the Wessely schools' functional somatic
theory tended to stereotype patients with ME/CFS as having certain
undesirable traits. This stereotyping was due to a lack of empathy for
sufferers and contempt for the Hippocratic oath; ignorance of the
neurological classification (G93.3): a systematic denigration of a
neurological disease by those with a clear conflict of interest: the
(F48.0) mis-classification of ME/CFS by members of the Wessely school, and
a subsequent 'non-disease' poll in the BMJ. These factors have led to
difficulties for many general practitioners in managing patients with
ME/CFS.
Conclusions - Barriers to the sound research and clinical management
of patients with ME/CFS are partly due to doctors' faulty illness beliefs,
which result in negative stereotyping of patients with ME/CFS, and partly
the BMJ for not taking into account the best available evidence. The
consequence of these barriers have led to a contempt for sufferers which
can only be described as being tantamount to abuse.
Competing interests:
Struggling to survive on £43 per week since September after being refused Incapacity Benefit because of doctors' faulty illness beliefs - currently waiting an appeal.
Competing interests: No competing interests