Invest in ME have
been asked by a number of people to
comment on the planned psychosocial
conference on CFS being arranged by
the Royal Society of Medicine in
April and in which the chairman of
the ME charity, AfME, is taking
part.
Invest in ME supports the view stated recently by
the 25% Group that there is no justification for the CEO or chairman
of any ME charity to be speaking at the RSM conference and that it is
doubtful that such participation will benefit patients with ME or
their families and does imply some patient-backed validity to
psychiatric involvement in ME - unless an unequivocal and correct
view of the physical nature of ME is presented and the proceedings
of the conference are published afterwards for all to see.
We do not believe that it is necessary to avoid
mentioning conferences such as the RSM conference. Making people
aware of these conferences can also serve to highlight the lack of
scientific rigour and data in the arguments of those who perpetuate
the view of ME as a somatoform illness (as also illustrated in the
IiME Quotable Quotes booklet).
Similar psychosocial
conferences occur around the world and we feel the best way to
publicise a balanced and informed view of ME is to try to provide a
means of presenting objective science relating to the extensive
biomedical research which has already proven the organic nature of
ME. This we are doing with our annual biomedical research
conferences.
In the case of the RSM
conference the active participation of AfME in another psychosocial
conference, occurring six months after their previous psychosocial
conference in October 2007, has helped to illustrate that people
with ME and their families could look to other organisations to
help promote better awareness of ME as a physical illness. It
is to be noted that no representative of AfME has ever attended one
of the IiME international biomedical conferences.
However, rather than expending time and energy
worrying about the conduct of another organisation Invest in ME are
instead concentrating fully on our international
biomedical research conference in London on 23rd May.
Our theme for the conference is Sub Grouping and
Treatments for ME and we hope the conference will itself highlight
the biased and unscientific views likely to be portrayed at the RSM
conference and cause those "ME charities" who support those views to
rethink their position.
This will be IiME's third such conference and this
year we have some of the foremost experts in the world presenting at
the conference and delivering scientific data from biomedical
research into ME. The IiME conference offers unrivalled knowledge to
be presented to a UK/European audience.
Experts such as Dr. Leonard Jason, Dr John Chia, Dr
Martin Lerner, Dr Jonathan Kerr, the Whittemore-Peterson Institute
represented by their research director Dr Judy Mikovits, Dr Irving
Spurr of the John Richardson Research Group, Dr Julia Newton, Dr
Jean Monro and Professor Malcolm Hooper will be representing decades
of research into ME.
IiME welcome everyone to our conferences to learn
about the true nature of ME and the proceedings are always
publicised afterwards. In previous years as funding has become
available IiME have created a DVD of the conference lectures and
presentations and some of the lectures at our conferences have been
published in the Journal of Clinical Pathology.
We have heavily discounted the ticket prices for
people with ME and their carers and have a scheme which allows healthcare
professionals to attend at a discounted rate if they are connected
with a local ME group. We have done this to encourage real
cooperation between healthcare professionals and people with ME and
their families.
The ticket prices for professionals are also very competitive for a
conference which carries full CPD accreditation (6 points).
We would invite people who feel strongly about the
RSM conference to support the IiME conference on 23rd May and help
us to promote awareness of biomedical research which is on display
and which will undoubtedly provide the only sure way to
develop treatments and a cure for ME.