From the Imperial College London website.
The SAFFE Study – Slow Wave Sleep And Daytime Functioning in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Principal Investigator: Professor David Nutt
Investigators: Dr Claire Durant, Dr Sue Wilson and Professor B Puri
SAFFE study team: saffe@imperial.ac.uk
ABOUT THE STUDY
We are looking at the link between sleep and daytime functioning in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.
People with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) commonly describe problems with their sleep, often reporting both daytime sleepiness and unrefreshing sleep during the night, which may impact on daytime functioning. Research suggests that deep slow wave sleep may be altered in CFS.
In the SAFFE study we will investigate if enhancing slow wave sleep during the night can affect day time functioning.
The SAFFE study is being undertaken by the Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, and is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) of the United Kingdom. It has been approved by London Brent Research Ethics Committee: 13/LO/0882.
WHO CAN TAKE PART?
We are currently looking for people who:
Have a current diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome
Are aged between the ages of 25 and 65
Have a good grasp of the English language
Can take part in a research study at Imperial College London.
WHAT IS INVOLVED?
If you decide that you would like to take part we will contact you and make sure you are eligible; if so you will need to come for a screening visit. All visits will take place at the NIHR/Wellcome Trust Imperial Clinical Research Facility in the Hammersmith Hospital.
Screening visit: The screening consulatation will take about 2 hours and will be followed by an overnight sleep recording. First we will ask for your consent to take part in the study, check you are suitable based on the study guidelines, and ask you to complete some questionaires. We will then ask you to stay the night to have your sleep monitored.
If you are suitable for the study, you will be asked to attend the research centre for two periods of 5 days from Monday evening until Friday late afternoon, separated by at least a week.
Study visits: Monday afternoon to Friday evening. We will ask you to stay in the Wellcome Research Centre for the majority of the study. You are welcome to leave for a short period of time during some of the days although you will need to stay in the research centre overnight. All your meals and refreshments will be provided.
During the study visits you will be asked to:
Take some medication before you go to sleep each night
Have your sleep monitored during the night and sometimes during the day
Complete some questionnaires and tasks which measure day time functioning and physical fatigue
HOW DO I FIND OUT MORE?
If you would like to find out more, please contact the study team by emailing: saffe@imperial.ac.uk or writing to;
SAFFE study team
Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology
Division of Brain Sciences
Imperial College London
Burlington Danes Building
Hammersmith Hospital campus
160 Du Cane Road
London W12 0NN
Interesting to see that the MRC are funding yet another Psychiatrist, Professor Nutt, who was sacked by Alan Johnson MP for his views on Drugs, to do a sleep related experiment with ‘CFS’ patients.
Haven’t these experiments been done a thousand times without MRC wasting more money on psychiatry.
ME/CFS is a fluctuating condition and those severely ill will again be excluded. How can you hope to get consistent results? However, Prof Nutt specialises in PET scanning and I will keep an open mind on this one.
Look forward to hearing the results.