Maes and Morris: Diagnosis of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: where are we now?

[Firestormm]

Editorial

Diagnosis of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: where are we now?

Posted online on February 27, 2013.
Michael Maes †1,2,3 MD PhD Professor, George Anderson4, Gerwyn Morris5 & Michael Berk2,6,7,8

Introduction:

The World Health Organization has classified Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) as a neurological disease since 1969 considering Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) as a synonym used interchangeably for ME since 1969.

ME and CFS are considered to be neuro-immune disorders, characterized by specific symptom profiles and a neuro-immune pathophysiology. However, there is controversy as to which criteria should be used to classify patients with “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.”

Areas covered:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) criteria consider chronic fatigue (CF) to be distinctive for CFS, whereas the International Consensus Criteria (ICC) stresses the presence of post-exertion malaise (PEM) as the hallmark feature of ME.

These case definitions have not been subjected to rigorous external validation methods, for example, pattern recognition analyses, instead being based on clinical insights and consensus.

Expert opinion:

Pattern recognition methods showed the existence of three qualitatively different categories:

(a) CF, where CF evident, but not satisfying full CDC syndrome criteria. (b) CFS, satisfying CDC criteria but without PEM. (c) ME, where PEM is evident in CFS. [???]

Future research on this “chronic fatigue spectrum” should, therefore, use the above mentioned validated categories and novel tailored algorithms to classify patients into ME, CFS, or CF.

Not sure if this qualifies as research, so have popped it here in the News. I'm not paying for access although others might like to I suppose.

 

[barbc56]

It's an editorial and not research. No new information.

I have never heard of this "journal" before but will look for some information.

Barb

ETA LOL!! It says editorial right at the top of Firestorm's article. Facepalm!!

 

[Nielk]

Here is the link to the full text - http://www.nel.edu/archive_issues/o/34_3/NEL340313R01_Morris--Maes.pdf

 

[JT1024]

The good news is that one of the authors has ME and he has direct contact with many top ME/CFS researchers and physicians.

He is a former member of this forum. At this time, his focus is solely on research and writing so he no longer participates in most forums.

 

[Lynne B]

Nielk, thanks for the link. I've just trawled through the entire article. I understand its general thrust, rather than the detail, but I must say I'm impressed by the work and care involved in writing this article. I don't care where I belong, either in the neuro-immune ME or CFS category, but I'm really keen to be classified by the objective criteria the authors have developed. Maybe then, research can go into finding effective treatments.