News

ME/CFS Priority Setting Partnership

The results of the ME/CFS Priority Setting Partnership were announced yesterday (12th May 2022, International ME Awareness Day) as the culmination of a process to “enable clinicians, patients and carers to work together to identify and prioritise evidence uncertainties in particular areas of health and care that could be answered by research”.

Facilitated by The James Lind Alliance, the JLA method is designed to change the way research funding is granted, and to “raise awareness of research questions which are of direct relevance and potential benefit to patients and the clinicians who treat them”.

These priorities came out of a process which gave a central voice to people with ME/CFS, and theirs are the voices that matter most. ME Research UK is encouraged that the outcome validates and strengthens our single-minded focus on funding relevant and rigorous biomedical research into the disease.

The results of the Priority Setting Partnership provide a useful backdrop as we continue our work and build on our unique position as a pre-eminent funder of ME/CFS research across the world.

Top 10 priorities

(We have added links to examples of research that ME Research UK has supported in these areas.)

  1. What is the biological mechanism that causes post-exertional malaise (symptoms caused or made worse by physical, mental or emotional effort, which can be delayed) in people with ME/CFS? How is this best treated and managed?
  2. Which existing drugs used to treat other conditions might be useful for treating ME/CFS, such as low dose naltrexone, or drugs used to treat Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)?
  3. How can an accurate and reliable diagnostic test be developed for ME/CFS?
  4. Is ME/CFS caused by a faulty immune system? Is ME/CFS an autoimmune condition?
  5. Are there different types of ME/CFS linked to different causes and/or how severe it becomes? Do different types of ME/CFS need different treatments and/or have different chances of recovery?
  6. Why do some people develop ME/CFS following an infection? Is there a link with long-COVID?
  7. What causes the central and peripheral nervous systems (brain, spinal cord and nerves in the body) to malfunction in people with ME/CFS? Could this understanding lead to new treatments?
  8. Is there a genetic link to ME/CFS? If yes, how does this affect the risk of ME/CFS in families? Could this lead to new treatments?
  9. What causes ME/CFS to become severe?
  10. How are mitochondria, responsible for the body’s energy production, affected in ME/CFS? Could this understanding lead to new treatments?

10+. Does poor delivery or use of oxygen within the body cause ME/CFS symptoms? If so, how is this best treated?

Verified by MonsterInsights