Ms Sarah O'Connell:

My own personal experience is that before I developed long-Covid symptoms I had ME and I have been on LDN for eight years. It allowed me to be able to mind my children and allowed my husband to be able to keep working so that was the difference. From hearing from patients around the country for some people it is the difference between working and not working. The drug naltrexone has been around for a long time - for decades. We are talking about a low-dose version of it, which obviously means fewer side effects and it being safer. We understand that the HSE wants randomised controlled studies for any medication. We are always told in medicine that there is a potential benefit versus potential risk analysis. In this instance we are talking about enormous potential benefits in getting someone back functioning day to day. Not everyone responds to it but a huge number of people do. This benefit is versus a very small potential risk. This is a well tolerated drug that has been used by people of all ages. It has been around a long time. We are frustrated by the lack of willingness to consider this as a treatment.