Monday, October 1, 2012

Some Speculation on Fibromyalgia (FM), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)

There was recently a paper by an Israeli group about the question whether Fibromyalgia (FM) and ME/CFS are same. This was followed by some speculation in the ME/CFS community. The general assumption seems to be that some consider FM a distinct illness/disease, and ME an different distinct illness/disease, and that CFS is some sort of "catch all" category.

I recently speculated how the "landscape" for ME/CFS might look like. I came to the conclusion that once proper biomedical tests (like done in the currently running Lipkin study) yield results, that ME/CFS will be shown to consist of several discrete illnesses/diseases.

I think a similar picture will emerge for FM.

Furthermore I think some (but not all) of the illnesses/diseases that will be found to cause FM will be the same as will be found to cause ME/CFS.

And on a related note: Some people want to get rid of the "CFS" label – to which I say bravo! Alas, I have the impression these advocates consider ME one distinct illness/disease (which I think is wrong), and they think that CFS is some sort of hodgepodge. Well assuming it so, then there are still many people (and I mean many people) who have an diagnosis of CFS, but actually have this "distinct ME" illness/disease. By cutting off these ME patients, that have been misdiagnosed as CFS patients, what do you accomplish?

Furthermore, these advocates seem to have no problem that people with the diagnosis "CFS" get slandered as psycho(somatic) cases, as long as "their ME" illness/disease is taken seriously. To which I say: If you don't fight for protection of CFS patients from psychobabblers, then why should ME patients be protected from psychobabblers?
Posted by Tony Mach Posted on Monday, October 01, 2012
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