MAGICAL MEDICINE: How to Make a Disease Disappear

by Professor Malcolm Hooper and Margaret Williams

For a long time Invest in ME has been critical of the workings, decisions and policies of the Medical Research Council.

Given that biomedical research, including gene research (which has shown that in people with ME/CFS, there are more gene abnormalities present than are found in cancer sufferers) has demonstrated that the psychiatrists who hold such sway at the MRC are comprehensively wrong about ME/CFS, nowhere could such criticism be more appropriate than in relation to the PACE Trial.

Professor Malcolm Hooper has made a formal complaint to the Minister of State responsible for the Medical Research Council.

A 442 page report, under the title Magical Medicine: How to Make a Disease Disappear, has also been produced detailing the failings of the Medical Research Council and specifically the PACE trials.

The report addresses the background to the MRC “PACE” Trial on “CFS/ME”, the biomedical evidence that disproves the assumptions of the MRC trial Principal Investigators, the many extremely disturbing issues surrounding the PACE Trial, and illustrations from the Manuals used in the trial. The document contains the background to consideration of and quotations from the Manuals for the Medical Research Council’s PACE Trial of behavioural interventions for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis together with evidence that such interventions are unlikely to be effective and may even be contra indicated.

Update 27th April 2010

David Willetts MP - Reply to Professor Hooper 8th November 2010


Further information on the MRC and the PACE Trials

Click here for more references to the PACE Trials on this site.

Documented involvement of viruses in ME CFS - click here.

FINE Trials experiences - click here.

ME and the UK Medical Research Council - click here

Invest in ME Research Newsletters on MRC - click here


Last Update 11/01/2011