In late 2017, JMEA submitted its opposition to the publication of national ME/CFS treatment guidelines for Japan (Draft), which was scheduled to be published in spring 2018. The document was not published in spring 2018 but was set to be filed as a research report with the government health agency Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED). We are currently awaiting the release of this report and will provide a further update on the research report when it becomes publicly available.
The Association is deeply grateful to the international ME/CFS medical experts and advocacy organizations which kindly responded to our request to provide comments on the draft treatment guidelines document. We immediately shared your comments with the research committee which drafted the document and with the Ministry of Health.
In August 2018, we held a press conference at the Ministry of Health on the opinion letter we received from the International Association for CFS/ME (IACFS/ME) in response to our request for the association’s opinion on translated excerpts of the document. In the opinion letter, the IACFS/ME expressed concern that the document could be of potential harm to ME/CFS patients in Japan due to the recommendation of Graded Exercise Therapy (GET) as an effective treatment. The letter also shared our concern that the discussion in the document of behavioral interventions such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and yoga and of antidepressant drug therapy could give the mistaken impression that ME is a psychological illness which can be cured by such interventions. Questions from the press included why the opinions of the international and Japanese ME/CFS experts differed, among more specific questions about the document.
Japan ME Association 