The Flat Earth Society
There is a group of psychiatrists who speculate that ME/CFS is a psychiatric disorder perpetuated by dysfunctional thinking.
This is in direct contrast to more than 50 years of biomedical evidence showing ME/CFS is an organic neurological disorder. Indeed the World Health Organization classifies ME/CFS as a neurological disorder specifically barring its classification under mental health disorders.
Watching the debate between psychologizers and sufferers is like stepping back in time and having a window seat on history that allows you to view the furor in the Flat Earth Society meetings as each new bit of Round Earth evidence is introduced.
It is amazing to watch the fervor with which psychologizers defend a doomed concept. Every person who has experienced the reality of CFS/ME knows the debate is moot, the outcome is certain.
The psychologizers continued resistance to accept the reality of a phenomenon whose existence doesn't depend on their acceptance, says more about the mental state of psychologizers than any of their pronouncements or verdicts say about the mental state of those who are just relating their experience and observations of the illness.
Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the Earth in 230 BC by measuring the shadows in a well in Syene during the summer solstice.
Over 1700 years later some people were still wondering if Columbus was going to sail off the edge of a flat Earth.
Some people can be convinced by a single piece of evidence that confirms a theory because the evidence can have no other explanation.
Others cling to the status quo by refusing to consider any evidence that endangers their beliefs.
As the pointless debate continues and more evidence accumulates, the question to psychologizers will be the same as it was for the Flat Earthers.
"How much more proof do you need?"
-Erik
Kate's note: Multiple sclerosis, ulcers, Parkinson's Disease, diabetes, migraines, and polio, as well as other organic disorders have also been listed by psychiatrists who speculated that these organic disorders were actually psychiatric disorders until the biomedical evidence was overwhelmingly accepted.
To prevent this from happening in the case of this severe organic neurological disorder, the current crop of psychiatrists are insisting that no further biomedical research in should be done regarding ME/CFS.
In the UK and the Netherlands it is nearly impossible to obtain biomedical funding as a result of psychiatric lobbying. In the United States, this severe organic neurological disorder ranks 107 out of 110 disease areas funded by the US government.
We are talking about a difference of millions upon millions of dollars in biomedical research.
The funding level is illogical in light of CDC studies done by Dr. William C. Reeves, Director of the Viral Exanthems and Herpesvirus Branch of the CDC's
National Center for Infectious Disease showing that the rate of chronic fatigue syndrome is ``25 times the rate of AIDS among women... and is considerably higher than female lung cancer... breast cancer... and hypertension.''
In a CDC study on the economic impact of ME/CFS, Dr. William Reeves and colleagues found the annual total value of lost productivity in the United States is $9.1 billion.
The annual total value of lost productivity in the United States was $9.1 billion, which represents about $20,000 per person with ME/CFS or approximately one-half of the household and labor force productivity of the average person with this syndrome. They also found a 37% decline in household productivity and a 54% reduction in labor force productivity among people with ME/CFS.
Reeves and colleagues concluded that lost productivity due to CFS is substantial both on an individual basis and relative to national estimates for other major illnesses.
According to the 2004 study, CFS results in a national productivity loss comparable to such losses from diseases of the digestive, immune and nervous systems, and from skin disorders. The extent of the burden indicates that continued research to determine the cause and potential therapies for CFS could provide substantial benefit both for individual patients and for the nation.
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