A study in Turkey has investigated the perceptions and clinical approaches of pain management specialists towards ME CFS.
Of the 250 pain management specialists invited to take part in the study, 106 (42%) responded to the questionnaire.
Regrettably, only 40% of participants had previously heard of ME CFS, and 38% believed the disease to be “a subtype of depression”.
Additionally, the statement “Chronic fatigue decreases with intense aerobic exercise” was agreed upon by 51% of participants.
The authors conclude that future research should focus on education and standardised guidelines to enhance care for people with ME/CFS.
The findings from this study, and those from a study investigating the effectiveness of an educational activity to increase student health professional understanding of ME/CFS in children and adolescents – reinforce the need for health care professional training programmes to include up-to-date, evidence-based educational materials on ME/CFS which not only reflect the physical nature of the disease and highlight evidence based management strategies, but also consider how ME/CFS can differ in the same individual over time, and between groups of the population, including by age, by sex, and by ethnic group.
