It’s common for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (a.k.a. CFS, CFIDS, ME/CFS) to be thought of in some circles as a psychiatric illness. Many medical professionals believe this much to the chagrin of those who know better. Part of the reason for this is because Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is:
- An illness that is difficult to classify because CFS symptoms exhibit in multiple ways in most people. Patients do not have one or two symptoms; they easily can count them on two hands.
- An illness that can be so devastating to someone that his or her life is literally left in shambles. That being so, a very sick person may appear to be depressed and/or neurotic with an abundance of unexplained CFS symptoms.
as a psychiatric illness.”
Whether this type of situation is true or not and prevalent to any extent, psychiatric illness symptomology must be measured on a case-by-case basis. These are not universal CFS symptoms and, according to most professionals who know better, are the result of the patient being so horribly sick, not a part of the illness’s cause.
Some people do have psychiatric factors influencing their symptoms, but the fact remains that many CFS sufferers are neither depressed nor neurotic. So, what does that do to this argument?
The proposed DSM-5 revision correctly does not identify chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) as a condition within the domain of mental disorders and the DSM. However, past discussions of the Somatic Symptoms Disorder Work Group have included such physiological disorders as chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome and fibromyalgia as “somatic presentations of mental disorders.”
None of the research and/or clinical criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome published since 1988 have established CFS as a mental disorder and a continuously growing body of literature demonstrates CFS to be a physiological disorder marked by abnormalities in the central and autonomic nervous systems, the immune system and the endocrine system. The role of infectious agents in the onset and/or persistence of CFS has received renewed attention since the DSM-5 revision process began in 1999.
Most recently, the October 2009 report of evidence of a human retrovirus, xenotropic murine leukemia-related retrovirus (XMRV), in CFS patients in Science (Lombardi, 2009) has generated new investigations into this and other infectious agents in CFS.
This entire document is worth reading. If CFS and Fibromyalgia, as is hinted, are reclassified as psychological disorders, this will be a game-changing occurrence… and not for the better. I encourage you to keep abreast of this issue as it can affect the care and treatment you receive and what and how insurance companies or government entities will continue to cover your medical expenses.
Example: In the UK, ME/CFS is already thought of as a mental disorder and patients in the UK get marginalized and receive little real care. In my opinion, this is greatly due to opinions about ME/CFS by a few powerful people within the psychiatric sphere of influence within the UK. Because of their opinions and work, little is being done in a positive framework to help the severely disabled and affects ME/CFS patients and their families, as exampled by the suicide and death of Lynn Gilderdale and others.
Lynn Gilderdale developed ME at the age of 14. She committed suicide in 2008.
Mis-classification of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or ME/CFS as being a psychiatric illness and then doing nothing about it would surely encourage other people to contemplate suicide as their days grow more desperate. I urge you not to lose sight of this important issue.
Thanks, Cinda CrawfordHost of the Health Matters Show
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