The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) finally announced the publication of their new 2021 ME/CFS updated guideline on the diagnosis and management of myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy)/ chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).
Dr Ray Perrin DO PhD (Osteopath, Neuroscientist, Clinical Director of The Perrin Clinic and Developer of the Perrin TechniqueTM) and all his team at The Perrin Clinic welcome the overall message that these new guidelines send to practitioners in the UK about how to best manage patients with ME/CFS.
To quote Dr Paul Chrisp, director of the Centre for Guidelines at NICE, who said that they have strived to produce a balanced guideline for ME/CFS patients “which has their wellbeing at its heart”.
The main points as far as its relevance to the management of ME/CFS by licensed Perrin Technique Practitioners are as follows:
- The guideline recognises that ME/CFS is a complex, multi-system, chronic medical condition where there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to managing symptoms.
- Enabling people to access care earlier may improve longer term outcomes and help people with ME/CFS.
- A holistic personalised management plan in line with this guideline should be encouraged and that people with ME/CFS should receive individually tailored support.
- The guideline makes it clear that any programme based on fixed incremental increases in physical activity or exercise, for example graded exercise therapy (GET)should not be offered for the treatment of ME/CFS.
- A person centred energy management can be offered as a key component of a personalised management plan. This is a self-management strategy led by the person living with ME/CFS with support from a healthcare professional that can be applied to any type of activity (cognitive, physical, emotional or social).
- The guideline highlights the importance of ensuring that people remain within their energy limits when undertaking activity of any kind.
To quote Baroness Finlay, Consultant in Palliative Medicine and vice-chair of the guideline committee, “Those with ME/CFS need to be listened to, understood and supported to adapt their lives. The committee members involved in this guideline have worked particularly hard to ensure care becomes more empathetic and focused on the individual’s needs”.
For 32 years the growing number of Perrin Technique practitioners worldwide has always treated each ME/CFS as an individual with Dr Perrin stressing the importance of a patient led treatment strategy based on the individual symptoms. In 1989 Dr Perrin was one of the first healthcare practitioners to advocate pacing, when most doctors were advising patients with ME/CFS to push themselves, get out and exercise more. Rest and pacing have always been an integral part of our overall strategy in the treatment of ME/CFS with patients being instructed by Perrin Technique practitioners to do half of what they feel capable of doing in all spheres of life.
Dr Perrin continues his research work together with colleagues at The University of Manchester, UK to provide further evidence to support his diagnostic and treatment strategies that are helping many thousands of patients around the world. Together with the approaches laid out in the new NICE guidelines, he and his team hope that The Perrin Technique will one day become part of the mainstream strategy employed by healthcare practitioners around the UK and beyond.
The Perrin TechniqueTM is an osteopathic approach developed by osteopath and neuroscientist Dr Raymond Perrin DO PhD that manually diagnoses and treats disorders affecting the neuro-lymphatic system also known as the ‘Glymphatic system’. Dr Perrin believes such as ME/CFS is one such disorder and that it can be helped by the technique that improves the drainage of toxins from the central nervous system. This drainage is achieved by cranial, articulatory and effleurage techniques on the head, neck, back and chest and is directed by the practitioner via the lymphatic system into the blood, where the offending poisons are detoxified in the liver. Eventually, with less toxins affecting the brain, the sympathetic nervous system begins to function correctly and health is eventually restored.