Not important, just illustrative: "Attitude helps treating chronic fatigue"

[Esther12]

Just a little titbit of what GPs are being taught:

Friday 08 June 2012, 3:24PM The attitudes of the doctor and the patient are important in treating chronic fatigue syndrome, general physician Stephen Child told delegates at the Rotorua GP CME today.

Ninety per cent of patients with chronic fatigue will get better in two years and it is important to explain that they are not a sick patient but a healthy person who is temporarily unwell, Dr Child says.

It's important to set the patient's expectations early and explain that 70 per cent of the time there isn't a diagnosis for chronic fatigue, he says.

Two treatments have shown to be particularly effective: cognitive behavioural therapy and graduated aerobic exercise.

The advice Dr Child gives his patients on the intensity of the aerobic exercise that is most effective is that they should be puffing but still able to talk to another person.

http://www.nzdoctor.co.nz/news/2012...-helps-treating-chronic-fatigue---gp-cme.aspx

 

[SilverbladeTE]

I'm surprised he doesn't offer bleeding, leeches and voodoo-curse removal as modern day, evidence-based medicine!



ok yeah, leeches are used today in Medicine, but for specific, useful, actual evidence-based reasons, not because the docs are inbred sheep-worriers who puff suspicious herbage like a wonky traction engine and were taught in a medical college that was way more like a horror version of Hogwarts!

Hm...

HARRY POTTER AND THE F*CKWITS OF MEDICINE
HARRY POTTER AND THE GIBBERING WEASELS
HARRY POTTER AND THE M.E. PRISONERS OF ASSHOLES
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PSYCHOBABBLERS

?

 

[ukxmrv]

The link just takes me to a login page. Can anyone dump the whole text somewhere so we can read and maybe complain about this rubbish.

 

[ukxmrv]

The link just takes me to a login page. Can anyone dump the whole text somewhere so we can read and maybe complain about this rubbish?

 

[Purple]

That is the whole text, ukxmrv

 

[Snow Leopard]

The article seems to be confusing general "fatigue" with "chronic fatigue syndrome". (with respect to recovery)

Here is the details on Dr Stephen Child's talk:
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/speakers/child_2012.php

PDF:
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/ChildFatigue.pdf

 

[Calathea]

You know, even if 90% of patients with chronic fatigue (as opposed to CFS, which is being conveniently conflated here) recover in two years, it's still not very helpful to tell them that they're not actually ill. Two years of being fatigued without medical backup is more than enough to wreck someone's career or relationship.

There seems to be an implication that we are all making ourselves worse by believing that we are seriously ill when we're not. Last I checked, the exact opposite was the problem. It takes years for an ME patient to find this sort of community. For the first few years, the only understanding we have of our illness is what is reflected to us by doctors and then by society, and they are all firmly telling us that we're not really ill. So we all think that recovery is just around the corner, overdo it, and get worse long-term.

The suggested level of exercise seems unusually brutal, even for proponents of GET. There is a really nasty feeling to this entire article.

 

[Esther12]

It really reminded me of the approach my doctors took when I was first ill. I think it's a fantasy that I'm not entirely willing to give up on, and I do not think that has been helpful.

Regardless of it's pragmatic costs and benefits, reassuring patients about their health when those assurances are not based upon good evidence is just immoral quackery. It's not a fair way to treat people.