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Aus ABC: ME/CFS is all in our minds

ahmo

Senior Member
Messages
4,805
Location
Northcoast NSW, Australia
Very disappointing to listen to the generally-interesting All in The Mind radio broadcast guest blithely assert that the most common form imaginary (psychosomatic) illness takes in, eg. North America, is ME/CFS. Maybe she's a known entity here, neurologist Suzanne Sullivan, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London.

There's a transcript. Her bit starts at 1/2 way, the remarks about ME are probably in the last 10 minutes. A few people had posted responses before I got there. You might want to add your voice.

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/imaginary-illness/6847086
 

drob31

Senior Member
Messages
1,487
Another reason not to trust mainstream media. In the US 6 corporations control all of the media (on tv).
 

minkeygirl

But I Look So Good.
Messages
4,678
Location
Left Coast
UK seems to have a monopoly on idiots telling is its in our heads and therapy Will cure us. Or if we have some illness CBT and GET is the ticket.
 

TiredSam

The wise nematode hibernates
Messages
2,677
Location
Germany
That tells you everything you need to know.

And WTH does she know about North America? Doesn't she practice in the UK?

She has to know about something before pronouncing opinions on it on the radio or in her book? Quick, somebody tell her - she seems completely unaware that that's the way it should work.
 

TiredSam

The wise nematode hibernates
Messages
2,677
Location
Germany
Crucially, O'Sullivan says the brains of people with psychosomatic illness process information differently to most people.
'So when we look at them with functional MRI ... we can see that different areas of the brain are highlighted in people who have psychosomatic illness compared with people who are perfectly well, and compared with people who are faking illness.

At first read I thought that might be a good idea, if I had the MRI it could prove that I didn't have psychosomatic illness. Then I realised that that would mean I had to be in one of the only other 2 categories - perfectly well or faking illness. People with biological illness don't seem to exist in her world.

And of course guess who would be interpreting the MRI result? Even tests for witchcraft 400 years ago were fairer - at least if you sank to the bottom of the village pond and drowned you could have "I told you I wasn't a witch" put on your gravestone - O'Sullivan's MRI test doesn't even give us the chance of a result as good as that.