News from India

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)—An invisible long-term illness that affects women more than men
According to experts, due to a lack of awareness and insufficient research, the diagnosis of CFS in India is quite difficult. Several researchers pointed out that medical school textbooks around the globe have little or no descriptions of this condition.
Written by Sushmita Panda
Updated: June 20, 2022 3:40:39 pm
https://www.financialexpress.com/he...ess-that-affects-women-more-than-men/2566712/
 
The Supreme Court directs the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to consider people with ME/CFS Dec 2022

from: Dr. Marc-Alexander Fluks

Source: Medical Dialogues
Date: December 6, 2022
Author: Barsha Misra
URL:
https://medicaldialogues.in/news/he...nic-fatigue-syndrome-sc-directs-centre-103586


Examine ways to improve conditions of people suffering from Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome: SC Directs Centre
-------------------------------------------------------------------

New Delhi: The Supreme Court recently directed the Union Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare for examining the means for betterment of the
conditions of people suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or Myalgic
Encephalomyelitis.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Screen Shot 2022-12-07 at 6.34.53 pm.png

Screen Shot 2022-12-07 at 6.36.46 pm.png

Here's the link to the Supreme Court ruling:
https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/supreme-court-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-192999.pdf
I think the article is a bit more positive than the actual Supreme Court ruling. I think the judges ruled that the delay in providing the good care that might have been expected as a result of the 2017 National Policy for Treatment of Rare Diseases is ok. But that if the petitioner was to submit a request to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the court has provided support for a review of the matter by experts.

Of course, the key thing is 'which experts?'.

I think the petitioner is P. Sreenivasa Chakravarthy - good on them.
There is also a list of people 'for the petitioner' who I assume are advisors for the petitioner:
Mr. S.P. Singh, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Rakesh Khanna, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Gopal Verma, AOR
Mr. Umang Verma, Adv
Mr. Ganganmeet Singh Sachdeva, Adv.
Ms. Ramya Khanna, Adv.

It would be terrific if the petitioner could be alerted to forum, so that they could get some international support for taking on the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
 
Dolphin said:
CFS in India.

Go to,
https://archive.ph/https://www.theh...fatigue-syndrome-in-india/article69566371.ece
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up.

The last paragraph is terrible!
Studies recommends cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) as effective treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). A 2020 study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine highlights that while most evidence supporting cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) comes from randomised controlled trials, there is limited research in real-world clinical settings. Nonetheless, the study confirms that CBT remains an effective approach for improving fatigue, physical functioning, and social adjustment in individuals with CFS.
Click to expand...
 
Oh great! My father who reads this newspaper is going to cut this article out and shove it in my face and force me to get CBT. I'm thinking of leaving a comment on the article webpage. Any pointers on what to mention, especially about the flaws of that 2020 study? I have brain fog right now, having difficulty going through that thread.
 
pooriepoor91 said:
Any pointers on what to mention, especially about the flaws of that 2020 study?
Click to expand...

It isn't even a proper trial, just experience from a clinic that was put out after the official trials had been shown NOT to show useful efficacy for CBT and GET, both by published analysis by Wilshire et al. and by the UK NICE Guideline committee analysis ongoing at the time and officially published in 2021.
 
Yes, and as 'experience from a clinic', there were no controls, so any improvement could be, and probably was, partly natural improvement. Some people would have got better without any intervention.

Also, there was a very large dropout rate, at least 31%, and considerably more for some specific measures. And the dropouts were, on average, sicker at baseline than the completers. So, that means that just the removal of the sicker people would have been enough to result in an improvement in averages at followup.

And, of course, the measures were subjective ('patients self-reported symptomology') and therefore highly vulnerable to bias, especially given the therapy aims to convince people that they have false illness beliefs and that they can safely ignore their symptoms.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top