France

Research
END of 2015: State of M.E. Research /recognition of M.E. in FRANCE :

- No one branch of medical practice specializes in M.E. in our country (except perhaps Professor Gregoire Cozon, Immunologist (Lyon), which was the first in France to have had the courage to rebel against the psychiatric treatment of the disease)

- The insultive employment of the term "CFS" (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome), when it's not called by the ridiculous name of "Anglo-Saxon disease", which has been in widespread use,

- Psychiatrization and / or denial of our illness, even today, in France, despite the almost 5,000 existing ME/CFS studies on NCBI & co, the various existing International Consensus Diagnostics Criterias, and the recognition and classification by the WHO of M.E. since 1969 (ICD-8), under the code G93.3 in ICD-10, as a serious debilitating neuro-immunological disease, multisystemic, thus affecting throughout the body (cardiovascular, endocrine, musculoskeletal .. - non-exhaustive list, etc.)

- Only one national association exists, Association Française du Syndrome de Fatigue Chronique, a non-profit association established in 1998 and nationally approved by the Ministry of Health since 2010 to represent French CFS patients. The association's leaders and referring doctors still refer patients to medical practices that use GET (graded exercise therapy) and CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), which are practices recently shown to have no efficacy and a potential for harm.

Indeed, leaders and doctors of this unique French Association, continue to cite the controversial PACE trial despite other country's medical organizations downgrading or removing the study from websites specializing in evidence-based science.

- The only French Center of "Brain and spinal cord", (which is less than 5 years old), has never heard about M.E. ......

- The only French specialist of Encephalopathies / Encephalomyelopathies, (Jerome Honnorat, Pr, Lyon), either, apparently ... ( (Pr. Jerome Honnorat was a student of the discoverer of the anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, Pr Dalmau )

France is currently experiencing an absolute medical desert regarding M.E. disease. Worse, ME is referenced as a psychological disease.

Access to care
How many hospitals&doctors, which diagnose and treat ME (estimate): Rehabilitation offers for ME sufferers:

Currently,(late December 2015), there is and there has never been a single clinical / institution specialized in ME (aka cfs), in France.

The only Doctor who has the courage, in a pro-psychiatrization national climate of ME / CFS in France, is Dr. Gregoire Cozon, Immunologist in Lyon. He focuses his treatment on food hygiene revised and corrected, and the use of probiotics, mainly.

Links
December 2015, When you Googling "Chronique+Fatigue+Syndrome" in France, this is what offer the 1st "official" links, and so, here what kind of aberration, a French doctor who has the humility to do research on Net, be able to read :

Extract translated:
 * Here is how "COCHRANE" presents ME (aka CFS):

" What can we learn about the evidences of this review?

Moderate quality of evidence indicates that exercise therapy was more effective to reduce fatigue that "passive" treatment or no treatment. The exercise therapy had a positive effect on the everyday physical functioning, sleep and self-assessment of overall health. A study suggests that exercise therapy was more effective than the balancing strategies to reduce fatigue. However, the exercise therapy was not more effective than CBT. The exercise therapy did not worsen symptoms in people with CFS. Serious side effects were rare in all groups, but because of limited information, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions on the safety of exercise therapy."

source : http://www.cochrane.org/fr/CD003200/lexercice-comme-traitement-pour-les-patients-atteints-du-syndrome-de-fatigue-chronique

Extract:
 * Here is how "rare diseases alliance" presents ME (aka CFS):

" PRESENTATION Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is defined as a functional somatic ( and we all know what " functional somatic mean in DSM V) symptoms that meet clinical criteria. Persistent fatigue is noted for over six months, unrelated to intense physical activity, not improved by rest ... With no identified cause for this dramatic depletion, the CFS can be associated with four symptoms including sore throat, lymph nodes, muscle pain, headache, unrefreshing sleep, impaired memory or concentration, multiple arthralgias, malaise after effort. This condition should not be confused with the inherent fatigue of any severe disease. The frequency of the CFS is measured between 0.1% and 2% of the general population. Diagnosis is difficult and not based on any organic or biological marker. It can be done in hospital Internal Medicine. There is no established treatment.

source : http://www.alliance-maladies-rares.org/association/nous-connaitre/les-associations-membres/association-francaise-du-syndrome-de-fatigue-chronique-asfc/