The Relationship of Trauma and CFS (Sean Lynch, psychiatrist)

[A.B.]

And since childhood trauma is not clearly defined, it could be said that "everyone" has had some sort of childhood trauma. (Anything from a skinned knee, rebuf by your first crush, that time when your parent had to take your sibling to the doctor and therefore you had to miss a birthday party....)

And another grumble
It feels as though childhood trauma is considered a much more serious factor in this disease than in others.

There isn't much room for interpretation when it comes to physical abuse. There is room for interpretation when it comes to emotional abuse and neglect. Then consider that patients could be in an emotional state where they judge things more negatively than they normally would. Then consider that therapists are nudging the patient to acknowledge their presumed abuse and childhood adversity, with the message that this is really important, and the promise that doing so will surely bring relief.

I think this might be an example of psychiatrists measuring just how large these biases are rather than measuring a true effect.

 

[Kati]

And since childhood trauma is not clearly defined, it could be said that "everyone" has had some sort of childhood trauma. (Anything from a skinned knee, rebuf by your first crush, that time when your parent had to take your sibling to the doctor and therefore you had to miss a birthday party....)

And another grumble
It feels as though childhood trauma is considered a much more serious factor in this disease than in others.

An internist, no less said in a presentation to other physicians that fibromyalgia was due to childhood trauma.

 

[sarah darwins]

A number of this doctor's patients have phoned me.....................some frequently. Most, if not all, who have contacted me have found attending his clinic to be both a frustrating and distressing experience. Sadly, some who describe what appears to be a clear-cut diagnosis of ME have been sectioned and locked away for months. They are forcibly administered antipsychotics and when they don't respond are labeled 'treatment resistant'. There are two cases ongoing to my knowledge now. One person I know is living in fear of being sectioned again after her health worsened considerably following being locked away and given antipsychotics.

Dr SL has recently moved down to Plymouth, but his legacy lives on.

A number who have spoken to me, in my opinion, clearly do not have the illness, yet the clinic labels them with CFS which they inform them is the same as ME. I have formed the impression that the clinic believes that ME is just chronic fatigue with attitude and when they are faced with a genuine ME patient they don't recognise it and regard the patient as delusional and in need of antipsychotics.

I phoned the clinic and was informed by the member of staff who answered the phone that 'CFS' and therefore ME in their opinion is a mental health problem. (I don't know the member of staff's status)

Most I know with ME in the county avoid this clinic and wisely so.

Some of this is beyond shocking. Given that there's no body of evidence for me/cfs being a psychiatric condition, I'm wondering if it's even legal.

 

[Sean]

A number of this doctor's patients have phoned me.....................some frequently. Most, if not all, who have contacted me have found attending his clinic to be both a frustrating and distressing experience. Sadly, some who describe what appears to be a clear-cut diagnosis of ME have been sectioned and locked away for months. They are forcibly administered antipsychotics and when they don't respond are labeled 'treatment resistant'. There are two cases ongoing to my knowledge now. One person I know is living in fear of being sectioned again after her health worsened considerably following being locked away and given antipsychotics.

Dr SL has recently moved down to Plymouth, but his legacy lives on.

A number who have spoken to me, in my opinion, clearly do not have the illness, yet the clinic labels them with CFS which they inform them is the same as ME. I have formed the impression that the clinic believes that ME is just chronic fatigue with attitude and when they are faced with a genuine ME patient they don't recognise it and regard the patient as delusional and in need of antipsychotics.

Incompetent thugs like SL need to be fully exposed.

 

[Sean]

I doubt it. Psychiatry/psychology is a very incestuous field. Many practitioners only interact with each other and in that way convince themselves that their sick way of thinking is perfectly healthy and normal.

Let me be clear that I believe there are some brilliant, caring, amazing people working in psycholgy-based fields. I've known some of them. These are intelligent people who can think for themselves, think critically, and have a deep desire to help other people. Unfortunately, there are far, far too many of the other kind -- those who were attracted to the power psychologists wield over the weak and fragile and have none of the necessary intelligence and compassion that make good psychologists (and psychiatrists).

One reason these types end up in psych is that the vague subjective nature of it all gives them huge wiggle room and makes it very difficult to hold them to account. They can always hide behind 'clinical judgement', and the 'inherent methodological limits of the field'. Etc.

Which begs the question of why they should be allowed so much power in the first place, if they can't exercise it safely.

 

[Sean]

Yes, it's more of their sociopathic manipulative game. By selecting "childhood trauma" as a cause and then defining "childhood trauma" as any number of normal childhood experiences, they can classify any of us as having had childhood trauma which they then use to explain our adult illness. It's a very sick and distorted way of thinking.

It's an open ended game, in which whenever one psych angle is discredited there is always another variation to propose, that requires another decade or two of study and conferences.

 

[alex3619]

Which begs the question of why they should be allowed so much power in the first place, if they can't exercise it safely.

I think this is a key question that needs answers before psychiatry can advance and get even a modicum of respect back.

 

[alex3619]

It's an open ended game, in which whenever one psych angle is discredited there is always another variation to propose, that requires another decade or two of study and conferences.

Which the history of psychosomatic medicine shows, they do this again and again. I suspect this is pervasive throughout some schools of psychiatry, but I do not know if its universal. It would be disturbing if it was.

 

[Chrisb]

A number of this doctor's patients have phoned me.....................some frequently. Most, if not all, who have contacted me have found attending his clinic to be both a frustrating and distressing experience. Sadly, some who describe what appears to be a clear-cut diagnosis of ME have been sectioned and locked away for months. They are forcibly administered antipsychotics and when they don't respond are labeled 'treatment resistant'. There are two cases ongoing to my knowledge now. One person I know is living in fear of being sectioned again after her health worsened considerably following being locked away and given antipsychotics.

Dr SL has recently moved down to Plymouth, but his legacy lives on.

A number who have spoken to me, in my opinion, clearly do not have the illness, yet the clinic labels them with CFS which they inform them is the same as ME. I have formed the impression that the clinic believes that ME is just chronic fatigue with attitude and when they are faced with a genuine ME patient they don't recognise it and regard the patient as delusional and in need of antipsychotics.

I phoned the clinic and was informed by the member of staff who answered the phone that 'CFS' and therefore ME in their opinion is a mental health problem. (I don't know the member of staff's status)

Most I know with ME in the county avoid this clinic and wisely so.

It may be that the man's early views of ME were affected by a selection bias and that when the clinic (not the Plymouth one) initially opened, in about 1992, good professional consultants who had originally investigated and diagnosed the condition explained to their existing ME patients the likelihood of deriving benefit from the new psychiatrist led unit and the therapies which it endorsed. It could well be that the clinic's initial intake was then heavily biased towards a broad CFS cohort, ME patients having self selected out of a process which had nothing to offer them. I know of one for whom this was true.

This might explain why when genuine cases of ME came along they were unable to recognise them

 

[Countrygirl]

It may be that the man's early views of ME were affected by a selection bias and that when the clinic (not the Plymouth one) initially opened, in about 1992, good professional consultants who had originally investigated and diagnosed the condition explained to their existing ME patients the likelihood of deriving benefit from the new psychiatrist led unit and the therapies which it endorsed. It could well be that the clinic's initial intake was then heavily biased towards a broad CFS cohort, ME patients having self selected out of a process which had nothing to offer them. I know of one for whom this was true.

This might explain why when genuine cases of ME came along they were unable to recognise them

Yes, I think this partly explains the situation, ChrisB. I know one of the two doctors there and I am sure from my personal experience that in his speciality (which isn't related to the illness) he does his best to help his patients; however, he appeared to know little about the disease and so was dependent on guidance of the psychiatrist in charge. He has recently sectioned one patient who clearly described her ME symptoms. He didn't recognise them and so considered her to be delusional and sent her against her will to a psychiatric hospital. She now lives in fear of another knock on the door.

The other case I mentioned involves a patient who was diagnosed with ME by a respected doctor known to us all but has now been sectioned and locked away for some years. This case is more complicated as I suspect that there are psychiatric problems involved, but the patient's ME symptoms and even overt neurological signs are dismissed as evidence of psychosis. It is a particularly distressing case and one which should be subjected to a rigorous and honest inquiry. There appears to be no hope of that though. I fear this patient will never be freed now.

 

[Chrisb]

Yes, I think this partly explains the situation, ChrisB. I know one of the two doctors there and I am sure from my personal experience that in his speciality (which isn't related to the illness) he does his best to help his patients; however, he appeared to know little about the disease and so was dependent on guidance of the psychiatrist in charge. He has recently sectioned one patient who clearly described her ME symptoms. He didn't recognise them and so considered her to be delusional and sent her against her will to a psychiatric hospital. She now lives in fear of another knock on the door.

The other case I mentioned involves a patient who was diagnosed with ME by a respected doctor known to us all but has now been sectioned and locked away for some years. This case is more complicated as I suspect that there are psychiatric problems involved, but the patient's ME symptoms and even overt neurological signs are dismissed as evidence of psychosis. It is a particularly distressing case and one which should be subjected to a rigorous and honest inquiry. There appears to be no hope of that though. I fear this patient will never be freed now.

I am sorry to hear of these cases. Obviously all cases are different and one does not know the facts. However one thing which greatly concerns me is the possibility of iatrogenic illness. In my case there has been hardly a drug to which I have not reacted adversely. There seems to be a fairly substantial group who report something similar.

I made myself unpopular with a GP for suggesting that treatment appears to be a procrustean bed. It is expected that the patient should fit the treatment, rather than the reverse.

There seems to be always a risk that once patients lose the capacity to fight back, if they have clinicians with insufficient respect for the patient as an individual, the adverse effect of treatment may be entirely unnoticed.