Action for M.E. established a pilot national counselling service. Angela Henderson moved on, leaving Nick Anderson as overall Director. The M.E. charities filled the letters page of the Lancet, responding to a letter from Dr Simon Wessely. Dr Wessely had argued that M.E. was the same as CFS and that the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Classification of Diseases ICD 10 should reverse its recent decision to include M.E. in the section on Diseases of the Nervous System and place it instead within Other Neurotic Disorders, the section which includes CFS and depression.
Thanks to a donation from the Scottish Business Achievement Award Trust, via Alex and Jan Meddowes, Action for M.E. opened a ‘Scottish Office’ staffed by Neil Conn and Robin Irvine.
InterAction reported its first: “International M.E. Awareness Day - 12 May.”
The Task Force Report CFS/PVFS/M.E. was published on 13 September. It concluded that there was widespread ignorance and mismanagement of chronic fatigue syndromes and that patients often encountered lack of support from doctors, healthcare professionals, education authorities and society. Recommendations: clarify the differences between various chronic fatigue syndromes; educate professionals and public to accept their existence; train relevant professionals to identify and manage them; improve services to patients; actively encourage research.
