Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) Diagnosis & Management Information for Doctors & Healthcare Providers (from ME Advocates Ireland), May 2023

Oh dear. I think this is going to be counter-productive. I can't recommend this.

My eyes were glazing over, and I care deeply about this topic. Doctors and other health care providers need brief, tightly edited content that is well-formatted.

There also needs to be fewer claims about the problems underlying ME/CFS. It's too early to be telling doctors that ion transport is a problem in ME/CFS, for example.

 

I can see a lot of work has gone into this, but I agree with the above comments. It's far too long, repetetive and disorganised, with long lists of resources muddled in with various bits of advice and unreplicated claims about science. Even the sample care plan is 14 pages of closely typed information.

I have no idea who is expected to read it all. There is also too much use of emotive words like 'horrendous'.

Also the authors have decided to focus diagnosis on the ICC, which is, I think, not used much for diagnosis in real life. A shorter set of core symptoms like the IOM or NICE criteria is much more usable clinically, I think.

If the authors are reading these comments, I hope they will rethink the document. Information for clinicians, most of whom will not be solely specialists in ME/CFS, needs to be succinct, easy to use, accurate and in non emotive language. And lists of references and resources should be collected at the end, I think, to make the main document more readable.

I can't see who this is targeted for.

 

I’ve only skimmed. Im assuming it is intended as a reference document along the lines of the ME Association purple book.