| HOME > Links > Aus/NZ treatment and research links |
Some of the work being done here is highly regarded internationally. Other, Government funded, research supports the push in the UK and USA to "psychiatrise" CFS. Here are links to articles by and about Australian and New Zealand researchers and practitioners.
General || Research at Newcastle University (Bioscreen) || Research in Adelaide || Sydney Researchers || Original theories|| Pain research || Other articles || Role of infections - Mycoplasma, rickettsia. Lyme etc || Myofascial Pain Syndrome, bodywork etc || Leaky gut and food sensitivities
Overseas treatment and research links
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - a hidden killer? - Don Lewis, the Melbourne CFS GP, interviewed by ABC Victoria about the death of a UK patient. "The first ever death from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has been recorded in Britain. Will this finding change the way CFS is tackled?"
Abstracts of papers by Australian researchers on this website.
Research info on the Alison Hunter Memorial Foundation site includes abstracts and posters from the 1998, 1999 and 2001 Sydney CFS Conferences.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Overcoming the Attitudinal Impasse - abstract of Dr Ellie Stein's paper from Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Vol. 8. No. 3/4. 2001. pp. 53-61.
See also Dr. Rosamund Vallings' Report on the Brussels Conference (Sept 99), where Australian researchers were among the keynote speakers.
Research into chronic pain and fatigue, begun at the University of Newcastle's "Collaborative Pain Research Unit" (CPRU), continued with the setting up of the "Bioscreen" testing service in Melbourne. See below, and also the Bioscreen archive on this site, for articles and information on what they have found.
Bioscreen's new website is at www.bioscreenmedical.com.
Selected abstracts are available on this website.
Sydney 2001 conference abstracts:
Possible New Cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Identified "Researchers from Australia have linked CFS to the anandamide system in the body, which is responsible for regulating several aspects of bodily function, including the brain, heart, gut, and immune system." - WebMD article dated May 29, 2001
Exercise Capacity in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - Arch Intern Med 2000 Nov 27;160(21):3270-3277. Brussells team includes Neil McGregor of University of Newcastle: "When compared with healthy sedentary women, female patients with CFS show a significantly decreased exercise capacity."
An investigation of the association between toxin-producing staphylococcus, biochemical changes and jaw muscle pain Neil R McGregor. University of Sydney (2000). (Doctorate thesis) [PDF]
The Biochemistry of Chronic Pain and Fatigue Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Vol. 7(1) 2000 pp. 3-21 "These studies indicated that changes in nitrogen homeostasis were associated with pain and fatigue symptoms and carriage of certain pathogens may sustain or exaggerate the chronic disorder." Abstract
Lecture by Tania Emms and Dr Henry Butt reported in the June 2000 issue of the The ME/CFS Society (S.A.) Inc.'s Talking Point magazine.
Australian research - Jacqueline Steincamp writes in G.P. Weekly (N.Z.) March 22, 2000 on the work of Professor Tim Roberts and his team at the Collaborative Pain Research Unit (as posted to the Co-Cure mailing list 23 May 2000).
ABC Quantum report on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (20/6/96) featured a brief interview with Dr Hugh Dunstan of the Newcastle team.
Relevant articles on this website in the Bioscreen archive.
CFSUM1
and CFSUM2 in urine from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome are methodological
artefacts - British researchers from St George's Hospital Medical School
in London disagree with the significance of the Bioscreen results: "The
methods used cannot provide reliable qualitative or quantitative data on urinary
metabolites. No clinical or biochemical significance can be
drawn between these compounds in ME/CFS or any other clinical conditions."
(Aug 2005)
Normal aerobic capacity and lactate threshold during incremental exercise in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome - By G C Scroop, R B Burnet, B Yeap, J D Buckley, S S Lim, and T Ho, Exercise Physiology Research Unit, Department of Physiology, Unversity of Adelaide, SA, Nov 2004
To exercise or not to exercise in chronic fatigue syndrome? - letter to the MJA (2004; 181 (10): 578-580) by Garry C Scroop and Richard B Burnet - plus further correspondence. "In summary, patients with CFS are not "deconditioned". Neither their muscle strength nor their exercise capacity is different from that of other sedentary members of the community (> 70%). We remain unaware of any incontrovertible evidence that the various "exercise training" programs suggested in previous articles improve either the physiological or clinical status of people with CFS."
Brain link to fatigue syndrome - Sydney Morning Herald, May 03, 2002. Research by Dr Steven Unger, director of nuclear medicine at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and neurologist Dr Rey Casse shows a reduction in blood flow to the brain in CFS patients. "The finding adds more weight to the argument that the controversial illness is biological, not psychological." (also here).
Sydney 2001 conference abstracts:
ABC TV's Health Dimensions on Dr Scroop's Adelaide research, 2 October 2001.
Exercise
a health risk for chronic fatigue sufferers - ABC news, 8 August 2001
"... a study conducted by Adelaide University's Exercise and Physiology
Research Unit has found chronic fatigue patients have the same fitness level
as the average healthy person. Associate Professor Garry Scroop says exercise
can make their condition worse."
Press release by the Royal Adelaide Hospital on the CFS research Dr Richard Burnet, Senior Endocrinologist, is doing in collaboration with Prof. Garry Scroop. (10 Oct, 2000)
Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in Fibromyalgia - Richard Kwiatek, MBBS, FRACP, Leighton Barnden, PhD, Jenni Chew, BAppSc, Christopher Rowe, MD, FRACP, Kevin Pile, MD, FRACP: The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Adelaide; Raymond Tedman, PhD, Richard Jarrett, PhD: The University of Adelaide (Dec 2000)
On the website of the CFS Society of Victoria:
Chronic fatigue syndrome and the female athlete by Scroop et al, keynote abstract from the Australian Conference of Science and Medicine in Sport, Adelaide October 1998.
Total Body Potassium in the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - paper by Dr Richard Burnet, Dr Garry Scroop and others, given at the 1998 Sydney CFS Conference. Also on the website of the SA Society here.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome story from Australia’s Channel Nine program “A Current Affair” (17 June 1998) featuring the work in Adelaide.
Information on the University of Adelaide's website about work in the Exercise Physiology Research Unit - including research by Dr Garry Scroop.
Articles on this website about research in Adelaide.
Dr. Les Simpson – Rethinking the Pathogenesis of CFIDS - by Craig Maupin. Today, many researchers are interested in the role of the circulatory system in CFIDS. SPECT scans have revealed impaired blood flow to the brain, research on orthostatic intolerance in PWCs has provided additional clues, and low circulating blood volume has been postulated as a contributor to the illness. However, Simpson was convinced that impaired blood flow played a major role in CFS long before the current increase in awareness on the issue. He believes blood viscosity and reduced rates of capillary blood significantly affect the disorder, providing a unifying model for many of the distinct and disabling symptoms.
Aldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency: summary (by Dr David Bird) of David Eather's theory, from the book The Cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Light at the end of the Tunnel.
Treatment with Essential Fatty Acids: Your
victory over chronic fatigue syndrome by Frank Bartosy and Sue Ashton.
In 1998, Frank claimed that this book 'details his successful treatment with
essential fatty acids, triumphing over chronic fatigue syndrome' ('In August
1997, Frank Bartosy began experimenting with essential fatty
acids(EFAs) & developed a treatment that was largely responsible for his
amazing recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)'.Yahoo
announcement list.). That was a while ago ... but the publisher's
current blurb reads: 'Despite having studied an extraordinary amount
of documents and scientific papers, the authors of this book were becoming increasingly
skeptical about an absolute cure ever being found. However, in January 2007
a truly astonishing thing happened! Frank was rapidly healed of all traces of
the fatigue and myalgia that had been plaguing him for 13 years! Indeed, he
was so amazed that he started to wonder if divine guidance could possibly have
led him to an amazing discovery?' Hard to know what to believe, isn't it?
Brain injury linked to chronic fatigue - "New research into chronic fatigue syndrome suggests that it may be caused by temporary brain injuries resulting from a bout of glandular fever [EBV]." Professor Andrew Lloyd's research.
Hit-and-run Injury To The Brain: New Evidence On Chronic Fatigue Causation - "A seven-year tracking study has prompted scientists to suggest that chronic fatigue syndrome could be the result of brain injuries inflicted during the early stages of glandular fever. Australian researchers have put the suggestion in this week's Journal of Infectious Diseases, which reveals new findings from the 'Dubbo Infection Outcomes Study'. Since 1999, a team led by UNSW Professor Andrew Lloyd have been tracking the long-term health of individuals infected with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Ross River virus (RRV) or Q fever infection. Their goal is to discover whether the post-infection fatigue syndrome that may affect up to 100,000 Australians is caused by the persistence of EBV, a weakened immune system, psychological vulnerability, or some combination of these. University of New South Wales, 1 March 2006 ... Where the money for this research came from ...
Preliminary
evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction associated with post-infective fatigue
after acute infection with Epstein Barr Virus - Suzanne D Vernon, Toni Whistler,
Barbara Cameron, Ian B Hickie, William C Reeves
and Andrew Lloyd. BMC Infectious Diseases 2006, 6:15
Prolonged
illness after infectious mononucleosis is associated with altered
immunity but not with increased viral load, The Journal of Infectious
Diseases, vol. 193 (2006), pp 664-671. Authors: Barbara Cameron, Mandvi
Bharadwaj, Jacqueline Burrows, Chrysa Fazou, Denis Wakefield, Ian Hickie, Rosemary
French, Rajiv Khanna, Andrew Lloyd.
Abstracts and articles on this website.
Draft Guidelines comments and links.
Ted Shaw's Patient Information Day Speech following the 1999 Sydney CFS Conference describes the players and events behind the push to psychiatrise CFS in Australia and around the world:
"I’ve been following this for about 10 years and from what I’ve seen and heard from friends and support group leaders, the stigma of having ME/CFS has never been worse. Fewer and fewer doctors are willing to consider the illness as anything other than a psychiatric problem."
See also Ted's "Critique of the Sydney Researchers" on this site.
Illness or disease? The case of chronic fatigue syndrome by Andrew R Lloyd, Ian B Hickie, Robert H Loblay Medical Journal of Australia (MJA 2000; 172: 471-472) 15 May 2000
From the Australian Family Physician (Journal of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners) January 2000: Editorial on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and results of a survey on GPs' beliefs, attitudes and reported actions towards CFS. The editorial by Dr Michael Oldmeadow is fairly sympathetic but shows the unfortunate influence of the Draft Guidelines.
To exercise or not to exercise in chronic fatigue syndrome? No longer a question - Andrew R Lloyd, MJA 2004; 180 (9): 437-438 "Graded physical exercise is no panacea, but is beneficial"
Pain Clinic - the ABC program Catalyst followed patients in the Royal North Shore's ADAPT chronic pain program which features cognitive behavioural therapy and requires sufferers to stop all pain medications by the end of the second week. Pain Clinic part 2 | part 3. "Medication should be a thing of the past for this group, but for some it's a struggle.
Part 1 of the ABC's Quantum report on Treating Chronic Pain in October 2000 featured research being done into nerve injury pain at the Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital. Prof Michael Cousins, Director of the Pain Clinic there, "believes it’s time to recognise that pain is a disease. For too long it’s been treated as a symptom, which can be ignored. But new research shows that if severe pain, is not treated effectively, the result can be lasting damage to the nervous system" The following week the program looked at patients being treated in the Pain Management Centre at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (USA).
This article about COX-2 inhibitors in the Medical Journal of Australia, October 2000, explains how the new pain-killers work.
Transcript of ABC Life Matters broadcast on CFS, 12 May 2000. Norman Swan interviews Marilyn, a CFS sufferer from Qld; Dr Geoff Holloway from the WA Disability Services Commission who has done an interesting study of sufferers in that State; and Assoc. Prof. Andrew Lloyd, one of the Guidelines working group.
CFS: Is prolonged exposure to environmental level powerline frequency electromagic fields a co-factor to consider in treatment? - by D. Maisch, B. Rapley, R.E. Rowland, J. Podd. August 1998. See also case histories. From EMfacts Consultancy in Tasmania, researching the health effects of magnetic radiation.
Dr Whiting Summarises Some of the Latest Research into ME/CFS (1988) - from the website of the Victorian CFE/ME Society. A Brisbane doctor treating CFS patients discusses the Narcolepsy gene, staphylococcal infections, mycoplasma, adenosine, and blood pressure.
Visit Dr Mark Donohoe's website for interesting articles including Bringing it all together - a useful summary of Cheney's integrated approach to managing CFS, and an Information sheet on multiple chemical senstitivities
Jill Booth's report of Dr Bell's Visit to New Zealand (February 1998) explains his theory of "Neurocirculatory Asthenia", involving low circulating blood volume and red blood cell mass. From the ANZMES website.
Dr Roger Mazlen interviews Dr. Les Simpson - CFS Radio Program May 23rd, 1999. New Zealand researcher Dr Les Simpson says people with CFS have abnormally shaped red blood cells.
Dr Mike Holmes of the University of Otago, NZ, writes about his white blood cell research, from the ANZMES website.
Q Fever - The Lancet, February 2006. Parker NR, Barralet JH, Bell AM, Darling Downs Public Health Unit.
The ABC science program Catalyst reports on Germ Theory: the idea that illnesses such as heart disease and cancer could be caused by infections. Scientist at the Royal Brisbane Hospital are investigating the role of chlamydia in heart disease. Also featured is Australian scientist Barry Marshall, who proved that stomach ulcers aren't caused by lifestyle and personality but are the result of Helicobacter Pylori - "The medical establishment virtually labelled him a loony." (7 March 2002). Story has links to more info.
Kurlama is a company researching adjuvant vaccine technology and immunotherapy for cancer, CFS and various infectious diseases including mycoplasma and Q fever. Researchers include Dr Bill Paspialaris and Bernhard Liedtke BSc.
Channel 9 Good Medicine program's fact sheet on CFS mentions Dr Richard Schloeffel's treatments focussing on antibiotic therapy. He also presented case studies at the 1999 Sydney Conference and again at the 2001 conference.
Lyme Disease fact sheet from the Department of Medical Entomology, University of Sydney and Westmead Hospital
Lyme Disease in Australia from the Victorian ME/CFS Society
Articles about myofascial pain from Pain-Education.com include Information about trigger points and their treatment compiled by Dr Diana Cross and Perpetuating factors for trigger points by Dr John Whiteside.
Food Allergy and Food Intolerance Information Site from Allergydietitian. Lots of helpful information about allergic reactions to food, gastro-intestinal problems such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and nutrition.
| HOME > Links > Aus/NZ treatment and research links |
Webmaster
last revised 28 May 2007