Comment on: General practitioners’ attitudes to patients with a self diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis. [BMJ. 1995]
EDITOR,-Shonagh Scott and colleagues’ paper on general practitioners’ attitudes to self diagnosed myalgic encephalomyelitis illustrates, if nothing else, the continuing misrepresentation of this illness and those who suffer from it.’ Contrary to the authors’ claims, Action for ME has never encouraged self diagnosis, and nor have the other “active support organisations” in Britain. Moreover, we have never advocated that patients should make unreasonable demands on their general practitioners.
Despite what Scott and colleagues imply, it is not just patients who recognise the existence of myalgic encephalomyelitis but also the World Health Organisation (the disease appears in the International Classification of Diseases (10th revision)), several handbooks, and many doctors. Indeed, positive attitudes to fatigue syndromes such as myalgic encephalomyelitis have been noted in several studies in the past few years. For instance, Ho-Yen and McNamara surveyed 178 general practitioners in Scotland and found that 71% accepted the existence of the disorder.2 In New Zealand the figure was 90%.3
You can read the rest of this comment here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2549698/pdf/bmj00593-0058a.pdf
Source: Arber M. GPs’ attitudes to a self diagnosis of myalgic encephalomyelitis. Sufferers continue to be misrepresented. BMJ. 1995 May 20;310(6990):1330. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2549698/