Michael Sharpe

Michael Sharpe, M.A., M.R.C.P., M.R.C.Psych. is a British professor of psychological medicine at St Cross College, Oxford University and formerly at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. His research focuses on the integration of physical and mental healthcare.

Sharpe is first author of the British case definition of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) - often called the Oxford criteria - and co-author of the 1994 Fukuda criteria which has been widely used in research. Sharpe also helped develop the cognitive behavioral model for CFS and medically unexplained symptoms.

As one of the principal authors of the controversial PACE trial, Sharpe was criticized for misrepresenting the study’s findings in favor of cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise therapy.

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)

PACE trial publications:
 * 2007, Protocol for the PACE Trial: A randomised controlled trial of adaptive pacing, cognitive behaviour therapy, and graded exercise as supplements to standardised specialist medical care versus standardised specialist medical care alone for patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis or encephalopathy
 * Main trial outcome


 * 2011, Comparison of adaptive pacing therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, graded exercise therapy, and specialist medical care for chronic fatigue syndrome (PACE): a randomised trial
 * Other PACE trial publications 


 * 2012, Adaptive Pacing, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Graded Exercise, and Specialist Medical Care for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis


 * 2013, Recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome after treatments given in the PACE trial


 * 2013, A randomised trial of adaptive pacing therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, graded exercise, and specialist medical care for chronic fatigue syndrome (PACE): statistical analysis plan


 * 2013, The planning, implementation and publication of a complex intervention trial for chronic fatigue syndrome: the PACE trial


 * 2014, Adverse events and deterioration reported by participants in the PACE trial of therapies for chronic fatigue syndrome


 * 2015, Rehabilitative therapies for chronic fatigue syndrome: a secondary mediation analysis of the PACE trial


 * 2015, Rehabilitative treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome: long-term follow-up from the PACE trial


 * 2015, | Longitudinal mediation in the PACE randomised clinical trial of rehabilitative treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome: modelling and design considerations
 * 2017, Long-term economic evaluation of cognitive-behavioural group treatment versus enhanced usual care for functional somatic syndromes (Abstract)
 * 2019,  Chronic fatigue syndrome and an illness-focused approach to care: controversy, morality and paradox - (Full text)

Letters

 * PACE trial authors' responses


 * 2011, The PACE trial in chronic fatigue syndrome – Authors' reply


 * 2015, (response) Author's reply - Methods and outcome reporting in the PACE trial


 * 2016, (correspondence) Authors' reply - Patient reaction to the 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)


 * 2019, The PACE trial of treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome: a response to WILSHIRE et al (Full text)

Books

 * 1999, Chronic Fatigue and its Syndromes
 * 2003, Distinguishing Malingering from Psychiatric Disorders (book chapter), in Malingering and Illness Deception

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.

Denigration of ME patients
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
Prof. Sharpe has repeatedly made ad hominem attacks on critics, including 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 "against 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.

Malingering and Illness Deception meeting
Michael Sharpe presented at a Malingering and Illness Deception meeting funded by the UK's Department for Work and Pensions on the topic of distinguishing malingering from psychiatric disorders, a topic that later became a chapter of a book published in 2003 by the same name. Sharpe's chapter gives an example of the case of a woman with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which is classified as a not a psychiatric disorder. Other contributors to the book include Simon Wessely, Peter White, Mansel Aylward, all of whom became members of the PACE Trial Steering Committee a few years later.

Retirement from ME/CFS Research
In March 2019 Kate Kelland published in interview with Professor Michael Sharpe in which he claimed to have given up research in ME/CFS due to abuse and harassment from ME activists, however, the article was published less than a week after the publication of Sharpe et al's response to the PACE trial re-analysis by Wilshire et al. The same article was criticized for repeating the claim that Sir Simon Wessely has previously given up research into ME/CFS, despite his continued research publications indicating otherwise.

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)
 * 2003, Distinguishing malingering from psychiatric disorders (book chapter)
 * 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