CFSAC Agenda is up!

[Dx Revision Watch]

A great summary of Day 1 of the CFSAC meeting, from the Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association:
www.masscfids.org/resource-library/15/304

Looking forward to the Day 2 summary!

If anyone has read other good summaries/reports, please post. For those of us who are unable to watch the entire webcast, it's really valuable.

Just a couple of points about this report.


The report in Ann's link states:

"Worse yet, are the potential risks of having CFS be placed under the proposed category of "Chronic Complex System Disorders", in the forthcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), effective May 2013. One of the attorneys on the CFSAC panel warned this could have disastrous results, particularly for patients seeing doctors who are not well educated about CFS. They could be erroneously lumped in with this somatic disorder group and affect disability benefits as there are two year limits for certain mental disorders."


The proposed category "CSSD" is

Complex Somatic Symptom Disorder

not "Chronic Complex System Disorders".


I have asked Dr Gurwitt if the name of the proposed disorder can be corrected in the report.


Whilst it is not the case that the DSM-5 Somatic Symptom Disorders (SSD) Work Group for the Somatoform Disorders categories are proposing that CFS, per se, should be classified within the forthcoming DSM under "Somatic Symptom Disorders" -

it is the case, that illnesses and conditions like CFS, ME, IBS and FM (often described as medically unexplained or bundled together under Functional Somatic Syndromes) may be particularly vulnerable to the potential for the application of an additional diagnosis of a Somatic Symptom Disorder under the current DSM-5 Work Group draft proposals, or misdiagnosed with CSSD, instead.

 

[insearchof]

Hi Suzy

This is very interesting

The report in Ann's link states:

"Worse yet, are the potential risks of having CFS be placed under the proposed category of "Chronic Complex System Disorders", in the forthcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), effective May 2013. One of the attorneys on the CFSAC panel warned this could have disastrous results, particularly for patients seeing doctors who are not well educated about CFS. They could be erroneously lumped in with this somatic disorder group and affect disability benefits as there are two year limits for certain mental disorders."

Essentially, after 2 years - persons with a CFS diagnosis will be forced back into the work force.

In Australia, the government has just come out and said that it will be cracking down on and forcing persons on DSP back into the work force and it looks from all accounts, that those with CFS and soft mental diagnoses are likely targets.

The big global picture suggests we really live in a village.

 

[Cort]

Rita Sanderson emailed me to state that the error in the CSSD section pointed out by Suzy has been fixed.

Suzy C. was kind enough to alert our Assn. of the error re: CSSD and it has been since fixed.