This section will document items of interest in the world of ME/CFS, both nationally and internationally. Please click on a link to browse the relevant data.
 
 


Dr Nigel Speight in Dublin

 

Retired consultant paediatrician Dr Nigel Speight, who developed a special interest in young people with ME in 1984, will be visiting Dublin in April 2014. During this visit he will be seeing patients (up to 20 years of age) for a one-to-one consultation. For more information or to book an appointment, please contact the Irish ME Trust at 1890 200 912 or by email at info@imet.ie

Dr Nigel Speight. MA, MB, BChir, FRCP, FRCPCH, DCH.

Dr Nigel Speight has been a Consultant Paediatrician in Durham for over 25 years. He has seen a large number of cases of childhood ME in his own area and has frequently been called on to give a second opinion, often in very severe cases all over the UK.

By the time he retired he had been involved with over 500 childhood cases of all grades of severity. He has also developed special interests in childhood asthma, food intolerance, Child Abuse and Neglect, emotional and behavioural problems and ADHD.

He is widely considered to be the most knowledgeable and experienced ME Consultant Paediatrician in the UK. He has been invited to lecture on ME in Australia, Ireland and Norway. He was on the Chief Medical Officer’s Working Party which reported in 2002 and also the College of Paediatrics Guidelines group.

Along with 25 other specialists representing 13 countries, Dr Speight  was a member of the International Consensus Panel which published the   ‘Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: International Consensus Criteria’ 2011 for diagnosing and researching ME. This was a development from the Canadian Consensus Criteria. It is based on the most up-to-date international research and clinical experience which ‘strongly point to widespread inflammation and multisystemic neuropathology’.

Dr Speight has also participated in the very informative document “Myalgic Encephalomyelitis – Adult and Paediatric: International Consensus Primer for Medical Practitioners” edited by Bruce Carruthers andMarjorie van de Sande and published  in 2012. This explains that “the criterial symptoms, such as the distinctive abnormal responses to exertion can differentiate ME patients from those who are depressed or have other fatiguing conditions.”

Below please see 2 webinars from the Dutch ME Association of Dr. Speight on the following topics:

 

What is ME and what is CFS?

http://youtu.be/eBCuwTy6LWM

   - How did you get involved with ME?

   - What is ME?

   - What are the main features of ME?

   - What is CFS?

   - Does the term ME cover the disease?

 

Diagnostic tools for ME

http://youtu.be/aMBUN5nQZUc

   - How should ME be diagnosed?

   - What diagnostic tests should be done?

   - What are the main illnesses to be excluded with ME?

 

Dr Speight’s view of ME
From the beginning I have been convinced that ME is a primarily organic i.e. physical condition, and have always been amazed that the psychosomatic view could have held sway for so long. In children the issues are particularly clear. From my experience seeing so many other patients around the country, I appreciated the observation of the 14 year old doctor’s son in Australia who developed the condition and saw a lot of “experts” He said something to the effect that “They don’t seem to know much about it, but one thing he had noticed was that ME is a condition which seems to cause a psychological disturbance in doctors confronted with it!”

 

<<< Back to Snippets Index