The ME Association have updated our information booklet, ‘What Causes ME/CFS?', written my Dr Charles Shepherd, MEA Hon. Medical Adviser. We have also published separately the infographic poster from the booklet for anyone who wishes to print it out.
Extracts from the booklet introduction:
Knowing what causes a disease obviously helps to explain what produces the symptoms. It can also lead to the development of diagnostic biomarkers/blood tests and effective forms of treatment that are aimed at the underlying disease process, instead of just managing the symptoms.
Knowing the cause also decides how a disease is classified and which medical speciality should take the lead in patient management.
In the case of ME/CFS, the World Health Organisation (WHO) classifies ME/CFS as a disease of the central nervous system (in section G.93.3 of ICD10) – as does the Department of Health and Social Care. However, ME/CFS is not a disease that most neurologists are happy to deal with. So, at a specialist level, people can be referred to departments dealing with infectious diseases, immunology, rheumatology, virology and sometimes even psychiatry – even though this is not appropriate.
While we have some important clues as to what is causing the debilitating fatigue and the wide range of symptoms that affect different body systems in ME/CFS, we still don’t know what is really going wrong…
Dr Charles Shepherd,
Trustee and Hon. Medical Adviser to the ME Association,
Member of the 2018-2021 NICE guideline on ME/CFS committee,
Member of the 2002 Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on ME/CFS
