Down syndrome – American ME and CFS Society

Comment on:

Chronic fatigue syndrome. [Br J Gen Pract. 2001]

Frequency of attendance in general practice and symptoms before development of chronic fatigue syndrome: a case-control study. [Br J Gen Pract. 2001]

Professor Murdoch in the September BJGP 1 uses his study of Down’s syndrome,2 which demonstrated that mothers had an increased number of reported illnesses in the year before the birth, to undermine our interpretation of the findings in our chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) study in the July BJGP. 3 He asks why anyone should believe CFS is caused by behavioural factors.

You can read the rest of this comment here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1314178/pdf/11766858.pdf

Source: Hamilton W. Chronic fatigue syndrome. Br J Gen Pract. 2001 Dec;51(473):1015. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1314178/pdf/11766858.pdf (Full comment)

Comment in: Chronic fatigue syndrome. [Br J Gen Pract. 2001]

Comment on: Frequency of attendance in general practice and symptoms before development of chronic fatigue syndrome: a case-control study. [Br J Gen Pract. 2001]

The study of Hamilton et al in the July issue of the BJGP, 1 claims that a higher consultation rate in people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) before they develop the diagnosis supports the hypothesis that behavioural factors have a role in its aetiology. A similar case-control study of mothers and fathers of Down’s syndrome children showed that both mothers and fathers had significantly more recorded illnesses before the birth of the child and that the mothers had significantly more psychosis, neurosis or self-poisoning.2

The problem with such findings is deciding what they mean. No-one would suggest that Down’s syndrome is caused by ‘behavioural factors,’ so why should anyone believe that of CFS? There is no more evidence that increased frequency of attendance before diagnosis points to behavioural factors in CFS than that it points to non-dysjunction in the germ cells of mothers of Down’s syndrome children.

You can read the rest of this comment here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1314117/pdf/11593850.pdf

Source: Murdoch JC. Chronic fatigue syndrome. Br J Gen Pract. 2001 Sep;51(470):758. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1314117/pdf/11593850.pdf (Full comment)