Comment on: Follow up of patients presenting with fatigue to an infectious diseases clinic. [BMJ. 1992]
EDITOR,-Michael Sharpe and colleagues report that most patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome rate contact with medical services as unhelpful or only slightly helpful. Many sufferers turn to alternative health care, again with varied success. Such dissatisfaction with medical care is well documented, and self help organisations flourish to provide the support, advice, and education that is not, or cannot be, provided by the medical profession; they potentially fulfil an important role.
The authors conclude that for patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome membership of a self help organisation is associated with a poorer outcome (although whether members were more functionally impaired at the outset is not known). Adopting coping strategies, particularly with regard to exercise and “stress,” and a belief in the persistence of a viral infection are also associated with continuing disability.
You can read the rest of this comment here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1883006/pdf/bmj00086-0047d.pdf
Source: Cope H, David AS. Outcome in the chronic fatigue syndrome. BMJ. 1992 Aug 8;305(6849):365. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1883006/