Comment on: Deeper diagnosis. Multiple determinants of an illness experience. [Can Fam Physician. 1993]
I n the article “Deeper Diagnosis,”‘ it is evident that the various physicians involved had gone to great lengths to diagnose the patient’s condition. What is also apparent is the tendency of traditional medicine to “psychologize” any medical presentation that baffles physicians.
Chronic fatigue syndrome was considered during one of the emergency room visits that the patient made. This patient has postviral fatigue syndrome (as researchers in Glasgow, Scotland, call it), chronic fatigue syndrome (as Americans call it), chronic fatigue immune dysfunction syndrome (as patients in North America call it), and benign myalgic encephalomyelitis (as the English and sometimes Canadians call it). Fatigue does not have to be the predominant symptom of postviral fatigue syndrome, and the symptoms can include those of the patient in the article and much more.
You can read the rest of this article, along with the authors’ reply, here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2380224/pdf/canfamphys00100-0022a.pdf
Source: Trevor A. Chronic fatigue syndrome: what’s in a name? Can Fam Physician. 1994 Jun;40:1088-9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2380224/