Update 07/11/2023: the webpage has been taken down!
The Royal College of Psychiatrists, through their website, recommends that children with ME/CFS should receive graded exercise therapy (GET) and gradually increase their activity. Although the website claims “this is not advice,” in fact it very clearly is advice, and is likely to be taken as such by patients, their families, and by healthcare professionals.
GET is no longer recommended for people with ME/CFS because it can provoke post-exertional malaise (PEM), a form of relapse which can last for days, weeks or months, and in some cases can become permanent.
The NICE guidelines on ME/CFS, section 1.11.14, state:
1.11.14 Do not offer people with ME/CFS:
- any therapy based on physical activity or exercise as a cure for ME/CFS
- generalised physical activity or exercise programmes – this includes programmes developed for healthy people or people with other illnesses
- any programme that does not follow the approach in recommendation 1.11.13 or that uses fixed incremental increases in physical activity or exercise, for example, graded exercise therapy.
Unfortunately, this seems to be yet another example of the tendency of medical institutions not to take their duty of care towards people with ME/CFS seriously.
I’ll write to the Royal College of Psychiatrists about this, and post any reply they make on this blog. A screenshot from their website is pasted below:
ME/CFS Medical Education Campaign 