Thread by @nick2155

"In Britain, psychiatrists spent over a decade painting the disease as psychosomatic, going so far as to tamper with data in a major clinical trial published in The Lancet" #mecfs #pacetrial
tinyurl.com/3ym6b93a

"Which falsely stated behavioural therapy and a gradual increase in exercise, improved symptoms.

It took activists years of campaigning to have the trial discredited, delaying efforts to research the true cause of the disease"

"In Australia, general practitioners look to guidance issued by the Royal Australian College of Physicians (#RACP) to treat and manage their patients. The RACP clinical guidelines on #MECFS haven’t been updated in 20 years"

"Still promoting the ideology that the disease is psychological and can be treated with graded exercise and behavioural change"

"In addition, resources supplied by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) continue to promote graded exercise, going so far as to state ‘patients are encouraged to see symptoms [from exercise] as temporary and reversible’"

"This directly contradicts information published by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which says, ‘do not offer people with #MECFS any programme that uses fixed incremental increases in physical activity, for example, graded exercise therapy’"

“I’ve been shocked to learn the same clinic that harmed me is still practicing in Australia and is now targeting these therapies to #longCOVID patients.”

"The Call for Change petition has gathered almost 2,500 signatures and will be submitted to the Australian Government and the Disability Royal Commission at the end of this month."

"In addition to updated clinical guidelines and access to disability support, it asks for research funding commensurate with disease burden and an investment in educating medical practitioners about this poorly understood disease. "
change.org/p/australian-p…