IOM: psychiatrists beliefs are wrong, ME/CFS is a "serious, complex, multisystem disease"

By Miriam E. Tucker, February 10, 2015:

"The illness that has been called "chronic fatigue syndrome" (CFS) in the United States and "myalgic encephalomyelitis" (ME) elsewhere is a "serious, complex, multisystem disease" that physicians need to view as "real" and diagnose, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) says in a new 235-page report."

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The etiology is unknown, but evidence  of biological disease has been mounting for the last several years.

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According to Dr Rowe, "It was a unanimous committee report.... It was interesting for us who are clinicians in the field to see how obvious the direction of the evidence was for those who are scientists, but not specialists in this area." < br >
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"the condition's hallmark defining symptom, postexertional malaise, the report proposes a new name be adopted, "systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID),"

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"It's time to stop saying that this is a just figment of people's imagination. This is a real disease, with real physical manifestations that need to be identified and cared for," Committee Chair Ellen Wright Clayton, MD, JD, professor of pediatrics and director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, told"Medscape Medical News".

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In particular, the panel found sufficient evidence linking the illness to immune dysfunction, especially diminished natural killer cell function, and infection, particularly Epstein-Barr virus.

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She added, "The level of response is much more than would be seen with deconditioning," with reference to the belief voiced by some clinicians that physical abnormalities in these patients are merely a result of their lack of activity. Indeed, Dr Rowe noted, "That argument is untenable with people who have been physically active, some of them athletes, [before becoming ill]. The deconditioning argument is flawed in that respect."