Simon Wessely

Sir Professor Simon Wessely is a British psychiatrist who has worked in the field of CFS/ME for at least two decades. His role in the field is highly controversial. Professor Wessely has written of his involvement in ME/CFS research. . Professor Wessely was an advisor to the PACE trial investigators. Professor Wessely has defended the PACE trial, stating "this trial was a landmark in behavioural complex intervention studies".

Change of name to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Professor Wessely is linked to the renaming in the 1990s of the disease from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Notable studies

 * 2016, Mortality of people with chronic fatigue syndrome: a retrospective cohort study in England and Wales from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Biomedical Research Centre (SLaM BRC) Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) Register The study has been criticized by James Coyne.
 * 2007, A Defence of the Randomized Controlled Trial in Mental Health
 * 1990, Old wine in new bottles: neurasthenia and 'ME'

2012 John Maddox Prize
In November 2012 Professor Wessely was awarded the Maddox Prize by Sense About Science who stated "Simon Wessely, Professor of Psychological Medicine at King's College London, was awarded the Prize for his ambition and courage in the field of ME (chronic fatigue syndrome) and Gulf War syndrome, and the way he has dealt bravely with intimidation and harassment when speaking about his work and that of colleagues."

The awarding of the prize has been criticized by Professor Malcolm Hooper.

Professor Wessely is also a member of the Advisory Council for Sense About Science.

Accusation of "blocking research"
Dr Ian Gibson has criticised Professor Wessely's purely psychological approach to the disease.

Accusations of abuse
Professor Wessely stated in summer 2011 that he had been the subject of abuse and threats of violence by patients objecting to his research.

Camelford water supply contamination
In 1988 the public water supply in Camelford in England was accidentally contaminated with aluminium sulphate. Professor Wessely published a paper in 1995 playing down the effects of the pollution and suggesting significant psychological factors were involved. The government formally and unreservedly apologized in 2013, 25 years later, to those whose health was affected by the water supply contamination.

Accusations of poor quality research
In 2000 Wessely & fellow researchers were accused of "unsupported conclusions derived from faulty analyses", and responded that "we've been attacked by gremlins" who changed the data on their manuscript.

Talks, Interviews, & Newspaper articles

 * 1994, "Is cancer all in the mind?" by Simon Wessely
 * 2010, Chronic fatigue syndrome (The BMJ podcast)

Quotations

 * Simon Wessely in his own words
 * Wessely's Words Revisited
 * 1993, "The worst thing to do is tell them to rest", "exercise is good for these patients", "Benefits can often make patients worse".

Online presence

 * PubMed - Simon Wessely
 * Twitter
 * Website

Learn more

 * Wikipedia - Simon Wessely
 * 1993, Letter to Mansel Aylward at the Department of Social Security complaining about neurological classification of ME/CFS