France

Demographics
There is no precise measure of the prevalence of ME/CFS in France. French researchers refer to numbers coming from the UK. Professor Jean-Dominique De Korwin cites prevalence numbers varying between 0.2% and 2.6% of the general population. The number of 150,000 persons affected is often cited to but doesn't have any known source.

Asso SFC
There is only one association for ME/CFS patients in France, called Asso SFC. The association has around 200 members, and it supports or tolerates Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Graded Exercise Therapy (GET) treatments, as well as the "biopsychosocial" model of the disease, supported by the members of the association's scientific council of doctors from diverse domains, including neurologists, immunologists, psychologists and gastro-enterologists. Some of doctors receive patients in specialized services, where they are able to diagnose the disease, mostly based on the Fukuda criteria according to Professor Jean-Dominique De Korwin. The association provides a newsletter and has local support groups.

EM Action
EM Action is a French website that mostly reports about the international news and research about ME.

These organization sometimes work together, as for the 2017 ME/CFS international day where they released a joint press release.

Research
There is currently no effort to research the disease or treatments for the disease by the French government. Most of the rare publications about the disease come from the scientific council of the association, the most notable being "Chronic fatigue syndrome: A new disorder?", which reports some of the international biomedical research, but endorses the UK biopsychosocial model of the disease, citing the PACE trial as a source. The paper also makes some bold claims without citing any source, like that CFS "greatly improves or cures itself in 3 to 5 years in half the cases" and "psychological factors prevent the patients from recovering."

A small team of researchers from the faculty of medicine of Marseilles regularly publishes papers about the disease,  the last one being "Association of biomarkers with health-related quality of life and history of stressors in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome patients."

Some ME "deniers" also publish regular papers, one of the most prolific being Pr. Pascal Cathebras, with his last publication named "What’s in a name? New and older labels for chronic fatigue" where he compares the disease to neurasthenia.

Medical guidelines
There are currently no guidelines by the government for ME/CFS, and the providing of financial or physical aid to patients highly depends on whether or not the insurance provider recognizes the existence of the disease.

Notable clinicians

 * Jean-Dominique De Korwin
 * François Authier
 * Alaa Ghali
 * Grégoire Cozon

Notable researchers

 * Jean-Dominique de Korwin
 * Jerome Authier
 * Stéphane Delliaux

Learn more

 * Asso SFC
 * EM Action
 * Ministère des Solidarités et de la Santé