andyplatts
Team Manager, Welfare and Employment Rights Servic, Leicester City Council, Leicester
Member since 11th Feb 2004
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RE: DLA & CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME (ME)
Tue 30-Mar-04 11:04 AM |
Hi Mike,
No cunning plans I'm afraid, I tend to work on the basis that it is physically based and wait for them to argue otherwise.
It might be an idea to get hold of the DoH working group's report on ME (details on link below). This was the report that was biled as finally confirming the consensus that ME was a 'real' disease.
http://www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/PressReleases/PressReleasesNotices/fs/en?CONTENT_ID=4011644&chk=OKUU4O
There was a report in the Times about a possible cause, the link might not work so here is text below;
December 22, 2003 Brain test proves fatigue syndrome By Oliver Wright, Health Correspondent
DOCTORS believe that they may have found the first scientific evidence for chronic fatigue syndrome, which affects more than 150,000 people in Britain. A team of researchers at Hammersmith Hospital, London, scanned the brains of sufferers of CFS, which is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or “yuppie flu”, and found enlarged gaps in fatty acids that were not present in non-sufferers. They have been backed by similar findings in Scotland and Japan.
They found that when sufferers were later treated with fish oil supplements the gaps in the brain closed and they started to feel better. CFS leaves patients with flu-like symptoms of physical and mental exhaustion which can last for years. Often people are so badly affected that they can be bed-ridden. So far there has been no medical explanation and some experts have claimed that the condition does not really exist. Researchers found that sufferers were low in a group of essential fatty acids, known as EPAs, high levels of which are found particularly in fish. Basant Puri, a neuro-psychiatrist at Hammersmith, said: “It was these natural gaps that we found to be enlarged in people with CFS. We have found what appears to be a cause for CFS but we don’t know why people get it.” Action for ME, which represents sufferers of the illness, said that the research was welcome but it believed that there may be several causes. Chris Clark, the charity’s chief executive, said: “All the evidence so far suggests that there is no single cause.”
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-940225,00.html
I think this is what they refer to as the functional disturbance in the brain. It might be worth seeing whether Hammersmith Hospital has a website with more info about the study on it.
I think EMPs have no chance of properly assessing disability caused by ME but try convincing Tribunals that. However, the working group report makes some comment that ME suffers don't have many outward signs of disease (if my memory serves me correctly, a while since I read it) so that may be useful against 'muscle wasting' etc observations.
I have used the summary of the working group's report as supporting evidence and have generally been successful, although not done a ME case for a while.
Hope thats some help
Andy
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