§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of research paid for by his Department into ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has been conducted using(a) London or Dowsett diagnostic criteria and (b) Oxford or CDC 1994 diagnostic criteria. [59334]
§ Ms JowellThe Government fund health and medical research in a number of ways.
The Department funds a range of research and development to support its work on policy development and evaluation in health and social care. The Department also manages the National Health Service research and development levy which is used to support research and development of relevance to the National Health Service in hospitals, general practice and other health care settings, and to fund the NHS research and development programme. In addition, the Medical Research Council (MRC) which receives most of its income via grant-in-aid from the Office of Science and Technology in the Department of Trade and Industry funds medical research as part of the Government's funding of the research base.
Management of much of the research supported by the NHS research and development levy is devolved and details are not collected routinely by the Department. 697W Information which is available centrally shows that the NHS research and development programme has funded a research project entitled Should GPs manage chronic fatigue syndrome? A controlled trial, which has now reported. This project used the 'Oxford' or Centre for Diseases Control criteria. Further work is about to be commissioned through competitive tender on the topic of Management Strategies for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The projects and therefore the criteria they will use have not yet been decided upon.
The MRC has funded a project in relation to myalgic encephalomyelitis which has recently been completed. The work was undertaken at the University of Manchester and the project was entitled The role of noradrenaline in the neuropsychological pathogenesis of the chronic fatigue syndrome. This project also used the 'Oxford' or Centre for Diseases Control criteria.