Valentij
But the same could be said of literally any other disease. It seems like a rather pointless exercise to speculate on how two diseases with little symptom overlap or treatment overlap might somehow be similar.
It's like saying that two diseases have a shared origin because both occur in the human body. It's so broad and vague that it's completely useless.
If there is a common root but divergent pathways, seek out and get rid of the common root. Surely that makes sense. Presented with a Lyme patient the doc who knows Lyme could be behind FM or CFS/ME type symptoms and depression, is better equipped not to come out with the "you're just a somatising depressive" line.
It is imo empowering to ME patients, especially on first encounter with a medic, to know depression may arise from e.g. immune activation, so that they do not get pushed down the "you're just depressed" track. I know this from bitter experience, even though most of my depression was for years circumstantial.
Since there is an open debate as to whether we/how many of us have an onging infection and ongoing infection can cause both mental and physical symptoms, I see sense in considering this issue. If you don't then fair enough, though I find your position hardline and unusual given my Lyme example.
In practice there is an overlap. or else we would not be complaining that Oxford catches a lot of primary depressives. if there were no overlap there would be no basis for confusion and hence no need for more specific criteria, such as CC/ICC. The source of this overlap is also of legitimate interest e.g. why are some depressives tired, but with due diligence to ensure correct grouping. This is how 2 day delayed PEM was identified in the first place by checking ME/CFS against e.g. sarcoidosis.That does broaden out into questions of the usefulness of studying fatigue across a number of illnesses in further research, and I accept that many in the ME community are against this, and I have some sympathy with that position. But it does also help in elucidating what may be special about ME.
I checked out one of the 2 day PEM. trial and as far as I understood, 50% of the CFS/ME cohort did not display the 2 day PEM.
Anyway, you know depression is not ME, as I do. We both have long term experience of symptoms which do not fit depression but do fit ME, we both want proper physical investigation and treatment, so let's hope that things will go better for all of us.
This is difficult stuff for many of us, I understand and I certainly do not want to encourage any ME/CFS= depression equation.