Angela Kennedy

Angela Kennedy was an advocate for the rights of the ME community from 2003-2015. She is a carer to her daughter who was given an ME diagnosis two years into her illness. She is a sociologist primarily researching in sociology of science, medicine, disability and health. Kennedy was active with the advocacy group The One Click Group from 2004-2006. She has written extensively on the PACE trial and its flaws, on psychogenic explanations for physical impairments, and on research methodology in the literature on ME/CFS and other conditions.

Book

Angela is the author of the book Authors of our Own Misfortune? The Problems with Psychogenic Explanations for Physical Illnesses.

Notable articles

• 'The social myth of mind over matter' in response to Chalder et al ('Epidemiology of chronic fatigue syndrome and self reported myalgic encephalomyelitis in 5-15 year olds: cross sectional study' BMJ 2003; 327: 654-655) 26 Sep 2003.

• 'The Doctor must not close his or her mind to all possible factors in regard to treatment' in response to Chalder et al ('Epidemiology of chronic fatigue syndrome and self reported myalgic encephalomyelitis in 5-15 year olds: cross sectional study' BMJ 2003; 327: 654-655) 28 Sep 2003.

• 'Re: your own worst enemy' in response to Thomas Szasz ('The psychiatric protection order for the "battered mental patient"' BMJ 2003; 327: 1449-1451) 29 December 2003.

• 'When Doctors say 'Psychosomatic', What do they Mean?' Quest (Magazine of the Canadian National ME/FM Action Network) No. 66, Fall 2004.

• 'Some serious problems in Doctors' attitudes towards ME/CFS sufferers uncovered' (and other comments) in response to Raine et al ('General practitioners' perceptions of chronic fatigue syndrome and beliefs about its management, compared with irritable bowel syndrome: qualitative study BMJ 2004; 328: 1354-1357) Jun 2004.

• 'The term 'heartsink' is an insult to patients' in response to Scott Pereira (Immunology BMJ Career Focus 2004; 329: 113-a-114-a).

• 'Failure to consider the issue of differential diagnosis now inexcusable' in response to Viner and Christie ('Fatigue and somatic symptoms' BMJ 2005; 330: 1012-1015) 3 May 2005.

• 'Some key issues neglected in this paper' in response to Thomas and Smith ("Primary healthcare provision and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a survey of patients' and General Practitioners' beliefs" BMC Family Practice 2005, 6:49 doi:10.1186/1471-2296-6-49) 22 August 2006.

• 'Problems in the Pace trial' in response to White et al ('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' BMC Neurology 2007, 7:6) 13 November 2007.

• 'Some problems with the London Criteria' in response to White et al ('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' BMC Neurology 2007, 7:6) Oct 1, 2008. The information on these criteria in this article was later shown to be inaccurate. There were no real problems with the criteria, revised in 2009 and published, and the arguments were irrelevant as they were not used in the trial. |

• Response to Wessely et al ('Failure to Detect the Novel Retrovirus XMRV in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome', PLoS ONE, 6 January 2010) 13 Jan 2010.

• "The 'validity' of patient needs in 'CFS'?" in response to Drachler et al ('The expressed needs of people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: A systematic review' BMC Public Health 2009, 9:458) 1 February 2010.

• 'What were the characteristics of the patient cohort?' in response to Groom et al ('Absence of xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus in UK patients with chronic fatigue syndrome' Retrovirology 2010, 7:10) 22 February 2010.

• 'Questions about 'CFS' and 'ICF' selection criteria of cohort' in response to Byrnes et al ('Expression in Peripheral Blood Leukocytes in Monozygotic Twins Discordant for Chronic Fatigue: No Evidence of a Biomarker' PLoS ONE 4(6): e5805 2009) 3 January 2011.

• Stakeholder Submission to the American Psychiatric Association on the proposed DSM-5 Criteria made January 2011.

http://dxrevisionwatch.com/dsm-5-proposals/dsm-5-submissions-2011/2/

• "Authors of our Own Misfortune? The Problems with Psychogenic Explanations for Physical Illnesses" (2012) Market Rasen, The Village Digital Press.

• 'Cost-effectiveness is irrelevant when safety has not even been addressed in the PACE trial' in response to McCrone et al ('Adaptive Pacing, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Graded Exercise, and Specialist Medical Care for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis' PLoS One, August 01, 2012) 2 Aug 2012.

• '"SSD" reifies and rejiggles already unsound concepts of 'psychogenic illness' in response to Frances ('The new somatic symptom disorder in DSM-5 risks mislabelling many people as mentally ill', BMJ 2013;346:f1580) 21 March 2013.

• 'Bad thoughts can’t make you sick, that’s just magical thinking' Aeon Opinions, 18 November 2015.

• Summary of my specific concerns about PACE with annotated bibliography 10 Feb 2016. (see also PACE trial)

Online presence

• Twitter

See also

• PACE trial

See myalgic encephalomyelitis.

The BMJ (previously the British Medical Journal) is a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal.

BMJ The BMJ (previously the British Medical Journal) is a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal.

Physical or bodily symptoms. May be used to mean bodily symptoms that are not the result of a known physical or biological illness. Not to be confused with the American Psychological Association (also APA).

American Psychiatric Association (APA) - The main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. Not to be confused with the American Psychological Association (also APA).

See Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) - A psychiatric reference book published by the American Psychiatric Association, often referred to as "the psychiatrist's Bible". Although the most recent version (DSM-5) purports to be the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders, the editors of both previous versions of the manual have heavily criticized the current version due to the climate of secrecy that shrouded the development of the latest version. 69% of the people who worked on DSM-5 reported having ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Allen Frances, who headed the development of the previous version, warned of dangerous unintended consequences such as new false 'epidemics'. The British Psychological Society criticized DSM-5 diagnoses as "clearly based largely on social norms, with 'symptoms' that all rely on subjective judgements" and expressed a major concern that "clients and the general public are negatively affected by the continued and continuous medicalisation of their natural and normal responses to their experiences". A petition signed by over 13,000 mental health professionals stated that the lowered diagnostic thresholds in DSM-5, combined with entirely subjective criteria based on western social norms, would "lead to inappropriate medical treatment of vulnerable populations". The director of the US National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Thomas R. Insel, pointed out that the diagnoses in DSM-5 had no scientific validity whatsoever. (Learn more: www.scientificamerican.com)

pacing The practice of staying within one's "energy envelope" or personal limit by combining periods of activity with periods of rest or avoiding exerting beyond a certain level. ME/CFS patients use pacing to avoid or reduce post-exertional malaise (PEM). Some patients use a heart rate monitor to help with pacing.

cognition Thought processes, including attention, reasoning, and memory.

somatic An adjective relating to the physical body or physical symptoms. It is often contrasted with the adjective "psychological", which refers to the human mind or mental symptoms. In biology, "somatic cells" refer to all the cells of the body, except those which form an egg or sperm.