National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

From MEpedia, a crowd-sourced encyclopedia of ME and CFS science and history

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is a UK government body that approves treatments for use within the UK National Health Service (NHS) with the mission to improve health and social care through evidence-based guidance.[1]

Online tools[edit | edit source]

Media coverage[edit | edit source]

NICE is involved in a wide variety of treatments for many health and social issues. The Guardian has a collection of articles here.

CFS/ME treatment guidelines[edit | edit source]

NICE guidelines recommend Graded exercise therapy (GET) and Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) as treatments for CFS/ME patients.[2][3]

Review, remove or revise NICE guidelines[edit | edit source]

Patients and patient advocacy groups are not in favor of the NICE guidelines and on June 25th 2014 the Forward-ME Group met with Prof Mark Baker, Director of the Centre for Clinical Practice at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)]. Professor Baker that the ME/CFS Guideline did not meet patient needs nor those of NICE. He said the Guideline did not promote innovation and only a "passive" intervention such as CBT and Graded Exercise. "There was not much of an evidence base to go on, and in NICE it was evidence that drove guidance."[4]

Margaret Williams noted: "Research that directly impinges on the safety of the NICE recommendations for graded exercise (which was available to the GDG) was also excluded from consideration and / or ignored. This was a serious omission." The recommendation of GET should be incrementally increased to Aerobic exercise was in direct contradiction to ME/CFS experts. Paul Cheney explained “The most important thing about exercise is not to have them do aerobic exercise. I believe that even progressive aerobic exercise, especially in phase one and possibly in other phases, is counter-productive. If you have a defect in the mitochondrial function and you push the mitochondria by exercise, you kill the DNA” (Lecture given in Orlando, Florida, February 1999, at the International Congress of Bioenergetic Medicine).[5]

Doctor Speedy weighs in with Is it NICE guidelines or NONSENSE guidelines? and the ME Association's Dr. Charles Shepherd pointed out during a meeting with Dr. Martin McShane of NHS England "that graded exercise therapy was causing harm to patients and that if a drug was causing harm, guidelines would be reviewed immediately."[6]

Office locations and contact information[edit | edit source]

  • London
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
10 Spring Gardens
London
SW1A 2BU
Telephone: +44 (0)300 323 0140
Fax: +44 (0)300 323 0748
e-mail: nice@nice.org.uk
  • Manchester
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
Level 1A, City Tower
Piccadilly Plaza
Manchester
M1 4BT
Telephone: +44 (0)300 323 0140
Fax: +44 (0)300 323 0149
e-mail: nice@nice.org.uk

Online presence[edit | edit source]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ NICE.org.uk
  2. ↑ Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy): diagnosis and management - NICE
  3. ↑ Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy): diagnosis and management of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy) in adults and children - PDF - Full Guideline
  4. ↑ On June 25th 2014 the Forward ME Group met with Prof Mark Baker, Director of the Centre for Clinical Practice at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
  5. ↑ Comments on the NICE Guideline on “CFS/ME” Margaret Williams - 29th August 2007
  6. ↑ Push to change ME/CFS NICE guideline - MEAction - Oct 10, 2015
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