Action for ME is a charitable organisation and self-help group based in the United Kingdom and dedicated to helping people with M.E., more commonly known in the medical profession as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The "ME" in "Action for ME" refers to two of the alternative names for chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis or myalgic encephalopathy, that are preferred by patient groups in the United Kingdom. The organisation also believes that individuals with M.E./CFS may be diagnosed with post-viral fatigue syndrome.The organisation was founded by patients in 1987 as The M.E. Action Campaign and changed its name to 'Action for M.E.' in 1993..
Sonya Chowdhury of the UK charity Action for ME highlights the crucial role that practice nurses can play in supporting individuals with this complex and often overlooked condition.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis (also known as ME/CFS or simply ME) has severely impacted the lives of tens of millions of people globally, but the disease currently has no accurate diagnostic tools or effective treatments. Identifying the biological causes of ME has proven challenging due to its wide range of symptoms and affected organs, and the lack of reproducible genetic associations across ME populations. This has prolonged misunderstanding, lack of awareness, and denial of the disease, further harming patients. We used the PrecisionLife® combinatorial analytics platform to identify disease signatures (i.e., combinations of 1–4 SNP-genotypes) that are significantly enriched in two cohorts of ME participants from DecodeME relative to controls from UK Biobank (UKB). We tested whether the number of these signatures possessed by an individual is significantly associated with increased prevalence of ME in a third disjoint cohort of DecodeME participants. We characterized a number of drug repurposing opportunities for a set of candidate core genes whose disease signatures had the strongest association with ME and which were linked to different mechanisms. We then tested gene overlap between the ME signatures identified and previous studies in long COVID, using two independent approaches to explore these shared genetic commonalities. We identified 22,411 reproducible disease signatures, comprising combinations of 7,555 unique SNPs, that are consistently associated with increased prevalence of ME in three disjoint patient cohorts. The count of reproducible signatures was significantly associated with increased prevalence of ME (p = 4 × 10− 21), and participants with a top 10
ABSTRACT Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are one of the most commonly occurring complications of pregnancy and include chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, and pre-eclampsia. New developments in early pregnancy screening to identify women at high risk for pre-eclampsia combined with targeted aspirin prophylaxis could greatly reduce the number of affected pregnancies. Furthermore, recent advances in the diagnosis of pre-eclampsia, such as placental growth factor based testing, have been shown to improve the identification of those pregnancies at highest risk of severe complications. Evidence from trials has refined the target blood pressure and timing of delivery to manage chronic hypertension and pre-eclampsia with non-severe features, respectively. Importantly, a wealth of epidemiological data now links HDP to future cardiovascular disease and diabetes decades after an affected pregnancy. This review discusses the current guidelines and research data on the prevention, diagnosis, management, and postnatal follow-up of HDP. It also discusses the gap in knowledge regarding the long term risks for cardiovascular disease following HDP and illustrates the importance of improving adherence to postnatal guidelines to monitor hypertension and the need for more research focused on primary prevention of future cardiovascular disease in women identified as being at high risk because of HDP.
Considering the possibility to exploit information and communication technologies (ICT) and specifically speaking chatbots, in the mental health domain, a study is proposed aimed at testing the perceptual features of different synthetic voices considering some fundamental aspects of human–computer interaction, namely users’ acceptance and expectations. More specifically, the effect of synthetic voices’ gender and quality on user’s preferences were investigated. The study involved 40 participants, recruited in Northern Ireland, split into two groups: mental health experts and participants living with depression and/or anxiety. Six synthetic voices, three females and three males, characterized by different quality levels were developed for the experiment, exploiting free online synthesizers. The Virtual Agent Voice Acceptance Questionnaire (VAVAQ) was used to collect data regarding preferences toward the different synthetic voices. Results showed that participants’ preferences seem to be affected by both the gender and the quality of a synthetic voice. In particular, participants preferred female voices and high-quality voices. Results also seem to suggest that the quality of a synthetic voice could have a stronger impact on users’ evaluations compared to voice’s gender.
The increasing number of refugees in Uganda is putting a significant strain on the country’s already limited resources, particularly those for healthcare. The government has implemented policies in response to the crisis. However, numerous obstacles have hampered these efforts. The aim of this article is to review previously published research by synthesising global evidence on factors that impede refugees’ access to healthcare services across the country. Articles published between 2016 and 2022 were searched in the Google Scholar and PubMed central databases. Google Scholar yielded 21,300, PubMed Central 637, and 5 articles from cross-references, however. The PRISMA framework was used to structure the selection, and 21 studies from different fields and settings met the inclusion criteria. The most frequently cited factors that impede access to and utilisation of needed healthcare services were sociocultural considerations such as stigma and discrimination, health system anomalies that led to mistrust of healthcare services and workers by refugee populations, and financial difficulties. In order to overcome these obstacles, the government and humanitarian organisations ought to carry out a comprehensive screening with leaders of refugee communities and local refugee organisations in order to comprehend the conditions of refugees. They ought to pay particular attention to the differences between the various cultures and settings, as well as the flow of the healthcare system, in order to sensitise people and raise awareness about the healthcare system. To make it easier for refugees to access and use the necessary healthcare services, specific health policies should be implemented. When looking for healthcare, equal rights and freedom of movement should be top priorities
