Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people were diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome in the last year.

Jane Ellison

No assessment has been made of the number of people who have been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in the last year.

In 2007 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) produced the clinical guidance Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy): Diagnosis and management of CFS/ME in adults and children, which estimates that the annual prevalence is approximately 4,000 cases per million of the population.

There is no medication available to specifically treat CFS, however the NICE guidance recommends that pharmacological pain relief may be appropriate for the relief of chronic pain that the condition can cause. Other methods of treatment that may be of benefit are cognitive behavioural therapy, graded exercise therapy or activity management. The guidance can be found at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg53

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