Michael Sharpe

Professor Michael Sharpe, M.A., M.R.C.P., M.R.C.Psych., is a British professor of psychological medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and formerly at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He is a key author of the PACE trial helping to devise the Oxford criteria as a diagnostic tool for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Notable studies

 * 1994, The chronic fatigue syndrome: a comprehensive approach to its definition and study. International Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study Group (Abstract) - known as the Fukuda criteria
 * 1997, Chronic fatigue syndrome. A practical guide to assessment and management (Full Text)
 * 1998, Doctors' diagnoses and patients' perceptions. Lessons from chronic fatigue syndrome (Abstract)
 * 2002, The report of the Chief Medical Officer's CFS/ME working group: what does it say and will it help? (Full Text)
 * 2011, PACE trial
 * 2017, Response to: "Do more people recover from chronic fatigue syndrome with cognitive behaviour therapy or graded exercise therapy than with other treatments?" (Abstract)
 * 2017, Long-term economic evaluation of cognitive-behavioural group treatment versus enhanced usual care for functional somatic syndromes (Abstract)

Books

 * 1999, Chronic Fatigue and its Syndromes

Oxford criteria
Prof. Michael Sharpe is author of the Oxford criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome, which is controversial for not excluding patients with symptoms that could be caused by psychiatric disorders, and for excluding patients with a neurological disorder - despite the fact that myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome/post-viral syndrome are all regarded as neurological disorders. The Oxford criteria have been used in a number of influential British studies, including the PACE trial and Deale, Chalder and Wessely (1995), the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) study given the highest evidence rating in the York Review of evidence used to justify the recommendation of CBT in the UK's NICE guidelines used by the NHS.

Fukuda criteria for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Prof. Sharpe is co-author of the heavily used Fukuda criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome, which was adopted by the CDC.

Freedom of information act requests
Michael Sharpe has repeatedly criticised both scientists and patients who have highlighted flaws in his research, or used Freedom of Information Act requests to request the release of unpublished data from his scientific research, including the successful request for the unpublished data from the controversial PACE trial.

"Undeserving sick" and "denigration" of ME patients
Professor Michael Sharpe has repeatedly referred to patients with ME/CFS as "the undeserving sick", and when challenged claims his comments are misunderstood or misinterpreted.

In 2018, a tweet by Sharpe claimed that some Freedom of Information Act requests and scientific criticism could not have been made from patients since they would have been too ill to do so. Sharpe's tweet led to over 100 Australians from the ME/CFS community requesting an apology and pointing out that Alem Matthees had been bedridden for 2 years since winning the PACE FOIA tribunal which led to the release of the PACE trial data, which Sharpe had opposed. Sharpe deleted the tweet as a result of the open letter, which had been signed by many of Alem Matthees's family.

Smearing critics
In a 2017 ethics lecture Prof. Sharpe described those who opposed his research, presumably including the scientists calling for the PACE trial to be retracted from The Lancet, as a "co-ordinated campaign" who were "anti-science", and compared them with climate change deniers.

Denial of illness or disability benefits
Prof. Sharpe has undertaken work for the UK's Department for Work and Pensions, a conflict of interest disclosed in the publication of the PACE trial but not disclosed to participants in the trial. He has also been paid by a number of health insurance companies seeking to deny or minimize disability insurance claims or ill health retirement pensions, including Unum and has repeated claimed that ME/CFS patients are motivated to stay ill in order to continue receiving disability benefits.

PACE trial
Prof. Sharpe was one of the three principle investigators in the controversial PACE trial, and a member of the PACE Trial Steering Committee and PACE Trial Management Group. The PACE trial was criticized for using the Oxford criteria developed by Sharpe et al, and Sharpe has been accused of "investigator bias" in relation to the PACE.

Wessely school
Michael Sharpe is often referred to as a "member" of the Wessely school, a group led by British psychiatrist Simon Wessely who have been criticized for their dismissal of biomedical research into ME/CFS, promotion of the biopsychosocial model, and close ties with the UK welfare benefit system and the health insurance industry. Some of the Wessely school have been knowing to make unpleasant comments about patients.

Books

 * 1995, Treatment of Functional Somatic Symptoms
 * 1999, Chronic Fatigue and its Syndromes
 * 2003, ABC of Psychological Medicine (ABC Series)
 * 2008, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (The Facts)

Media coverage and interviews

 * 2011, Comparison of treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome - the PACE trial -ABC.Net.AU Radio (with transcript)
 * 2013, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome 2 - Lancet TV on YouTube (about the PACE trial)
 * 2015, Chronic fatigue patients criticise study that says exercise can help - Guardian 28 Oct 2015

Online presence

 * Twitter

List of publications

 * PubMed
 * University of Oxford - Michael Sharpe

Learn more

 * 2005, A Response to Michael Sharpe
 * 2001, Quotable quotes by Michael Sharpe - Margaret Williams