Australia is no worst off then America in the views on CFS/ME and in fact may be actually better off in views as there has been a strong push in the past for doctors to go by the canadian consensus defination. This push was done i believe by Alison Hunter group and some of the other state CFS organisations over here (each states organisations used to work completely independantly). As in other places its up to the patients to educate the doctors as they dont really learn about this illness in medical school so will just form opinions from whatever info they come across. Alisons Hunters death i think did impact some on how things are over here.. but that was quite a while ago now.
Testing things in CFS/ME is not discouraged over here.. like goes on in England and some so in America. Thou finding a good doctor still is very hard esp when some of our doctors get their info from the CDC site. In the Canadian defination CFS/ME guidelines testing common findings found in CFS/ME is encouraged. Bascially here in Australia the doctors are either the CC CFS views or the CDC views.. or sitting in between, its up to them how they choose to think about the illness..
There was differences on what is going on depending on what state you are in and how active that CFS association has been in their doctor education etc. Such as the big conference done for doctors here in the past in Sth Australia (sponsored by Alison hunter memorial). In Sth Australia.. their own CFS guideline book was made (sponsored by our states government) and presented to doctors at one point to help educate.
I don't have enough experience to say whether it is entrenched or not. I have heard that MECFS Victoria does some great work. But without even looking I have come across a few disturbing articles on sites.
Here http://sacfs.asn.au/medical/what_causes_cfs.htm an article which Peter White authors "What causes chronic fatigue syndrome?
Infections, physical inactivity, and enhanced interoception may all play a part".
Here http://www.mecfscanberra.org.au/actmecfs/act_science%20week.htm Andrew Lloyd is to give a talk and from what I can see his slide show is there to view and copy. The talk is on Sunday August 20th in Canberra and I wonder if he is going to change any of his slides.
These two are both on mecfs support group websites.
The SACFS support group i can say arent biased at all towards psychological causes. That study at the site may of been there just cause them posting the latest studies in a non biased way, the site is like a one stop shop.. in which you can find out all kinds of things to do with CFS, what is going on with it in the other states etc etc. Just like here.. you see the wessely view kind of studies published, so we all know what is being said and studied, it dont mean thou that this site is biased towards Wessely views.
Up until last year they used to publish their own CFS mag to which i was subscribing to (till they merged the mag with another aust. CFS support group), in that for the time i was getting it for, i didnt see any articles done by ones of Wessely views. They were really taking this illness as a true physical one.
Since the mag thou has merged last year with the other group interstate, now it has articles i dont like from Wessely school thought people eg Lloyd. The only big name over here i see a Wessely or CDC issue with is Lloyd.
The most bad treatment most of us get over here is that no doctor will help treat us.. due to the treatments being unproven and they will just turn around and say "sorry we cant help" or "i dont deal with that, i have no time to be researching" "Your case is too complicated for me" (this is what ive got from lots and lots of different doctors over here).
Ive NEVER even had a doctor ever tell me since the 13 years ive got this illness that i should have GET or CBT for it (that gets as much support as B12 injections and other CFS/ME therapies). (so i think the GET and CBT must be more likely to occur to those in England and America). Its extremely hard to get any help like that over here, even if you want it. I wanted some therapy in just trying to deal with this illness and its been so hard to get what ive managed to get with a ton of pushing for it.
England has it the far worst between England, America, New Zealand and Australia. (and of cause other different countries have it even worst still where there isnt even an illness called CFS or one along those lines at all).
Being a country island.. we are more isolated then other parts of the world so harder to get specialised tests. Hence no way to have a XMRV test here yet. (the only one testing here i think for a study was Lloyd). So that poison is probably affecting some Australian states.