Consultant's claim that ME is all in the mind is challenged

A SENIOR Northern Ireland consultant has claimed that ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) is all in the mind.

However, two GPs who have carried out research into the condition say they have no doubt that it is a real illness, adding that ME sufferers will be upset by the consultant's remarks.

Mr William Holmes, consultant anaesthetist at the Erne Hospital, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, has claimed ME exists in the mind and that most of his medical colleagues agree but are afraid to say so.

"The vast majority of cases are diagnosed by the patients themselves or non medical friends", he told The Irish Times. "It's interesting that a high percentage of patients happen to be middle class females. Patients believe they have the symptoms. They believe there is something wrong with them, but I believe there is no physical base to it and that they are imagining it.

"I know a sick patient when I

see one yet these people look quite healthy and can eat like a horse yet spend their day sitting around in a dressing gown.

"I know of one family who badgered their GP for a wheelchair for their daughter, but she never used it. Some patients are quite manipulative and get quite annoyed when you tell them there is nothing identifiably wrong with them.

"I think if they were told they had a psychological condition they would get better much faster, but the medical profession won't stand up and be counted on this."

"This sort of comment is very hurtful, very damaging, and one wonders what sort of evidence is being used to back it up", said Dr Joe Fitzgibbon, a Galway based GP.

A spokeswoman for the Irish ME Support Group, Ms Vera Kindlon, whose son, Tom (23), has suffered from the condition for two years, said she was "absolutely devastated" by the remarks.

Mr Holmes has been strongly criticised for an article he wrote for the current issue of the Ulster Medical Journal.

Ms Kindlon said if Mr Holmes wanted to learn about the condition - he could come to her home and hem would find out all about it. "We do not need the likes of William Holmes telling us our son is imagining his illness, because he is not."

She said the condition was recognised by the Atlanta Centre for Disease Control in the US and by the World Health Organisation.

A former secretary of the Irish College of GPs, Dr Deirdre Murphy, who has carried out research on the condition, said Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was a better name for the illness. "It is a physical condition where people are more than 50 per cent reduced in their capacity to work normally."

Comments such as those of Mr Holmes could be "terribly disheartening" for sufferers, she said.

It is understood that Dr Charles Shepherd, medical consultant to the Northern Ireland ME Society, has written a letter of complaint to the journal about the article.