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WHAT PSYCHIATRISTS REALLY THINK ABOUT PATIENTS WITH ME cfs THE TRUTH

G

Gerwyn

Guest
I will kick off with two quotes

Proffessor Anthony Davies Institute of psychiatry(wesselly school)

"A diagnosis of a depressive illness would be appropiate.Unfortunately this is not good enough for the patients"

(Post Viral fatigue syndrome and Psychiatry.British Medical bulletin.1991:47:4:966-988)

"Though disordered and persisting viral infection have recently attracted attention,it is important that immunologists do not deflect attention away from the wider(ie psychiatric) aspects of the chronic fatigue/post viral syndrome"

Myalgic encephalomyelitis or what? Anthony Davies,simon Wesselly,Anthony Pelosi.Lancet1988:July9,
100-101
 

justinreilly

Senior Member
Messages
2,498
Location
NYC (& RI)
I have found some of the worst misinformation is in psychiatry and neurology textbooks.
Please peruse these on my amazon homepage and add your own comments to buyers about these books that call us hypochondriacs and malingerers:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member...isplay=public&sort_by=MostRecentReview&page=1

Neurologists Maurice Victor and Allan H. Ropper in Adam & Victor's Manual of Neurology, 2001, p.200:

Patients with certain chronic neurological illnesses (notably multiple sclerosis and Parkinson disease) complain inordinately of fatigue.

However, the majority of patients who complain of chronic fatigue will, in our experience, be found to suffer some type of psychiatric illness. Formerly the condition was called neurasthenia. A modern euphamism is "chronic fatigue syndrome," with the implication that it represents the lingering effects of a viral infection. Here mental fatigue... is combined with physical fatigue and poor endurance and is regularly associated with other symptoms such as headaches, muscle aches (fibromyalgia), irritability, insomnia, palpitation, trembling, feelings of hopelessness, etc. so that the condition comes to be recognized for what it usually is- anxiety neurosis or, most frequently, depression. Actually, this constellation of symptoms is no more frequent after viral infection than in the general population. The symptom complex has been observed in war veterans... especially if compensation is an issue.
[emphasis added]

If you don't like this quote, please comment on their book on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Victors-Manua...dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
 

Dr. Yes

Shame on You
Messages
868
I just did, Justin. Thanks for the link. Amazingly, neurologists have on the whole been among the most hostile groups of practitioners towards ME/CFS, sometimes siding with the most extreme of the 'psychologizers'. Not sure why.
 

jace

Off the fence
Messages
856
Location
England
It's a good idea to follow the link justin gives, if only to vote on the various comments