Yes, until today, the professional governing body for doctors in the U.K. - the Royal College of General Practitioners (RGCP) classified chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) as a "mental health disorder"
The RCGP has over 50,000 members and represents UK doctors on issues like clinical standards, research licensing and provides doctors with training, professional development and other subjects. It's clearly a key player in British medical circles.
[fright]
[/fright]As the ME Association had pointed out, besides the frustration and anger patients must feel at being wrongly portrayed, the designation had real-life consequences.
The ME Association tried unsuccessfully before to change the designation. The problem apparently cropped up when it was noticed that the RCGP put chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) in the "Care of People with Mental Health Problems." booklet.
When asked why they'd decided to list ME/CFS as a mental health disorder, the RCGP gave a very revealing answer; it was not because it was a mental health disorder, but because in the U.K. when people are treated for ME/CFS they often end up in a psychologists offices!
The ME Association rightly replied
The UK continues to amaze!
The RCGP has over 50,000 members and represents UK doctors on issues like clinical standards, research licensing and provides doctors with training, professional development and other subjects. It's clearly a key player in British medical circles.
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I am sure you must appreciate the problems that are being caused to people with ME/CFS, including ones involving denial of benefits and insurance cover/payments, and the failure to obtain or continue with employment, when their illness is inaccurately classified by a doctor as being a mental health disorder – as the RCGP is clearly doing in this training document. This can obviously result in considerable financial loss and we are aware of people taking legal action as a result of inaccurate classification of their illness.
The ME Association tried unsuccessfully before to change the designation. The problem apparently cropped up when it was noticed that the RCGP put chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) in the "Care of People with Mental Health Problems." booklet.
When asked why they'd decided to list ME/CFS as a mental health disorder, the RCGP gave a very revealing answer; it was not because it was a mental health disorder, but because in the U.K. when people are treated for ME/CFS they often end up in a psychologists offices!
The group that developed the curriculum were aware of the difficulties of assigning this condition to a specific grouping and eventually elected to include it within the statement on ‘Care of People with Mental Health Problems’. It was a difficult decision but it was taken largely on the grounds that many specialist services are currently configured and based in, or are linked to, psychology services. No assumptions should be drawn from this about the college’s views on causality.
The ME Association rightly replied
Now the RGCP has decided ME/CFS is not a mental health disorder. What it is they don't know and don't care to speculate. The ME Association provided the following letter:..It makes no sense whatsoever to claim that you can classify an illness as a mental health disorder simply because some patients are being seen in departments of psychiatry or psychology within the NHS.
Dear Dr Shepherd
I am pleased to inform you that the Curriculum Development Group and Postgraduate Training Board have now debated the views expressed about the reference to CFS/ME in the Mental Health statement and have agreed to remove the reference from the statement. It was not felt necessary to insert a specific reference to CFS/ME elsewhere in the curriculum, eg under Neurological Problems, because the curriculum takes a largely generic approach and does not specify every possible condition.
We remain happy to have a meeting with you and I am sorry that it has taken so long to arrange this.
Yours sincerely
Ruth Palmer
Director, Professional Development & Standards
The UK continues to amaze!