In order to think about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome clearly, it’s imperative to bring the events that led up to the creation
of CFS into “epidemic” context.
There were many outbreaks globally of similar or identical illnesses before the 1984 outbreak in Incline Village, Nevada, and the
surrounding Lake Tahoe area. There have been many since. But the outbreak in Lake Tahoe is the one that brought the CDC out
to investigate, and the one that gave birth to the name “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.”
Dr. Melvin Ramsay formally coined the name “Myalgic Encephalomyelitis” in 1956, applying it to the Royal Free outbreak in 1955
(see below). After 30 years of investigation into the illness, Ramsay developed a definition of the illness that has stood the test of
time. As Dr. Ramsay stated, “Eponyms such as ‘Akuryeru Disease’. ‘Iceland Disease’ and ‘Royal Free Disease’ have also been used
in the case of particular outbreaks. These have the disadvantage that they obscure the all important fact that the disease has been
reported world-wide.”
The World Health Organization has recognized Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as a distinct organic neurological disorder since 1969.
However, when the CDC created the term “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,” a great many patients who fit the clinical definition of ME
were cut off from a legitimate infectious neurological disease diagnosis, and trapped in the broad wastebasket term “CFS.”
Outbreaks prior to the Incline Village manifestation include (but are not limited to):
1934 Los Angeles County Hospital - Atypical Poliomyelitis
1936 Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin - St. Agnes Convent - Encephalitis
1937 Erstfeld, Switzerland - Abortive Poliomyelitis
1937 St. Gallen, Switzerland - Frohburg Hospital – Abortive Poliomyelitis
1939 Middlesex, England - Harefield Sanatorium - persistent Myalgia following sore throat
1939 Degersheim, Switzerland - Abortive Poliomyelitis
1945 Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania - epidemic Pleurodynia with prominent neurological symptoms and no
demonstrable cause
1946 Iceland – disease resembling Poliomyelitis with the character of Akureyri disease
1948 Iceland, North Coast towns - epidemic simulating Poliomyelitis
1949 Adelaide, South Australia - a disease resembling Poliomyelitis
1950 Louisville, Kentucky -- St. Joseph’s Infirmary - outbreak in nurses’ training school described as “epidemic Neuromyasthenia”
1950 Upper State New York - outbreak resembling the Iceland disease…simulating acute Anterior Poliomyelitis
1952 London, England - Middlesex Hospital Nurses’ Home - Encephalomyelitis associated with Poliomyelitis virus
1952 Copenhagen, Denmark - epidemic Myositis
1952 Lakeland, Florida - epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1953 Coventry and District, England - an illness resembling Poliomyelitis observed in nurses
1953 Rockville, Maryland - Chestnut Lodge Hospital - Poliomyelitis-like epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1953 Jutland, Denmark - epidemic Encephalitis with vertigo
1954 Seward, Alaska - benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (Iceland Disease)
1954 Berlin, Germany - British army - further outbreak of a disease resembling Poliomyelitis
1954 Liverpool, England - outbreak among medical and nursing staff in a local hospital
1955 Dalston, Cumbria, England – epidemic and sporadic outbreak of an unusual disease
1955 London, England - Royal Free Hospital - outbreak in staff and patients of Benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1955 Perth, Australia - virus epidemic in waves
1955 Gilfac Goch, Wales - outbreak of benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1955 Durban City, South Africa - Addington Hospital - outbreak among nurses of “Durban Mystery Disease”
1955 Segbwema, Sierra Leone - outbreak of Encephalomyelitis
1955 Patreksfjorour and Porshofn, Iceland - unusual response to polio vaccine
1955 Northwest London, England - nurses’ residential home - acute Infective Encephalomyelitis simulating poliomyelitis
1956 Ridgefield, Connecticut - epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1956 Punta Gorda Florida - outbreak of epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1956 Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, England - Lymphocytic Meningoencephalitis with myalgia and rash
1956 Pittsfield and Williamstown, Massachusetts - benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1956 Coventry, England - epidemic malaise, benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1957 Brighton, South Australia - Cocksakie Echo virus Meningitis, epidemic Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1958 Athens, Greece - nurses’ school - outbreak of benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis with periostitis and arthopathy noted.
1958 Southwest London, England - reports of sporadic cases of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1959 Newcastle Upon Tyne, England - outbreak of benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1961 Basel, Switzerland - sporadic cases of benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1961 New York State - outbreak of epidemic Neuromyasthenia in a convent
1964 Northwest London, England - epidemic malaise, epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1964 Franklin, Kentucky - outbreak of Neuromyasthenia in a factory
1967 Edinburgh, Scotland - sporadic cases resembling benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1968 Fraidek, Lebanon - benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1969 Brooklyn, New York - State University of New York Downstate Medical Center - epidemic Neuromyasthenia, unidentified
symptom complex
1970 Lackland Air Force Base, Texas - epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1970 London, England - Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children - outbreak of Neuromyasthenia among nurses
1975 Sacramento, California - Mercy San Juan Hospital - Infectious Venulitis, epidemic Phelobodynia
1976 Southwest Ireland - epidemic Neuromyasthenia, benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1977 Dallas – Fort Worth, Texas - epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1979 Southampton, England - Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1980 West Kilbridge, Ayrshire, Scotland - epidemic Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1980 San Francisco, California – epidemic persistent flu-like illness
1981 Stirlingshire, Scotland - sporadic Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1982 West Otago, Dunedin and Hamilton, New Zealand - Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1983 Los Angeles, California - initial cases of an unknown, chronic symptom complex involving profound “fatigue”
1984 Lake Tahoe Area of California/Nevada - start of a yearlong epidemic involving over 160 cases of chronic
illness eventually characterized as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Around the same time that the Lake Tahoe epidemic was unfolding, clusters of outbreak were occurring in other places as well. A
heavy pocket of illness seemed concentrated throughout Nevada and California, with outbreaks over a period of a few years in
Truckee, Placerville, Sonora, Elk Grove and Roseville, California, as well as in Yerington, Nevada. Other places were experiencing
outbreaks as well. Over 500 cases were documented in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario between August and
November of 1984.
Dr. David Bell, a physician in the small town of Lyndonville, NY, reported an outbreak of 60 children and 150 adults in 1985.
Curiously, the CDC never told Dr. Bell about the Incline Village outbreak.
In August 1984, the Lake Tahoe epidemic started amongst students, beginning with a high school girls’ basketball team.
In November 1984, Dr. Dan Peterson and Dr. Paul Cheney -- two physicians practicing together in the Lake Tahoe town of Incline
Village -- noticed that several of their patients were having experiencing a flu-like illness with a variety of unusual symptoms.
In December 1984, an article by Stephen Straus came out in the Annals of Internal Medicine about cases of a chronic mono-like
condition (chronic EBV). Dr. Peterson tried to tie that paper to the outbreak of illness he had on his hands, but some of his patients
didn’t have EBV at all.
Dr. Peterson called in the CDC, which normally doesn’t respond except through official channels. After extended discussions, the
CDC finally sent epidemiologists Jon Kaplan and Gary Holmes to investigate.
One of the most comprehensive studies of CFS, which came to be known as the Tahoe Study, was based on 259 patients from the
practice of Dr. Peterson and Dr. Cheney.
Annals of Internal Medicine, 15 January 1992; Vol 116 (2): 103-13
Some of the findings of this study included a significantly elevated T4/T8 cell ratio, brain lesions and Natural Killer Cell and B Cell
abnormalities. Direct evidence of active replication of the HHV6 virus and indirect evidence of active replication of the Epstein-Barr
virus were found in a very high proportion of patients, though not in all patients.
From the “Tahoe Study”:
"The illness we have observed shares many features with the entities variably called "postinfectious" or "postviral" fatigue syndrome
(12); myalgic encephalomyelitis, Royal Free disease, or Icelandic disease (13-19); primary fibromyalgia (or fibrositis)
(20-22); chronic mononucleosis (23-25); chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection syndrome (26-28); and the chronic fatigue
syndrome (29, 30).
"Perhaps these differently named entities are the same illness and share a common etiologic agent; perhaps they are clinically
similar but separate illnesses, with each triggered by a particular and different etiologic agent; or perhaps these entities represent
one illness that can be triggered by various factors and that manifests different clinical features in different patients (perhaps
because of host factors) but causes chronic fatigue and certain common pathophysiologic features in all patients.
"We are more inclined to the last view."
Unable to call the illness Chronic Epstein-Barr Syndrome, the Holmes Committee voted on a “temporary” name – Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome – until the etiology of the illness could be mapped. This name has been used for the illness ever since.
According to Dr. Byron Hyde’s A Brief History of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and an Irreverent History of Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome, there were three Myalgic Encephalomyelitis- literate doctors present at the Committee meeting – Dr. Byron Hyde, Dr.
Alexis Shelekov, and Dr. J. Gordon Parish.
“It was obvious that most of the assembly associated this epidemic disease with Epstein-Barr Virus and infectious Mononucleosis,
what the British refer to as glandular fever. It was immediately apparent that the consensus was going to be highjacked by this
majority. Dr. Shelokov and Dr. Parish decided that this meeting was going nowhere and so decided to leave before it terminated. I
followed them knowing full well that if I was going to learn anything credible about this disease process then I had to understand their
incredible knowledge base that had been developed for over 20 years.
“It was a wise choice for me in terms of acquiring knowledge but it was a bad choice in that had we stayed, we might have influenced
the decision that was to appear in 1988.”
History of “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” since the name was applied to the illness:
1990 – “Newsweek” refers to the illness as the “yuppie flu,” based on incorrect assumption that it mainly affected upper class
women. “Raggedy Ann Disease” and “Tahoe Crud” were a few of the other descriptors that found their way into the nomenclature.
1992-1994 – The CDC convened a committee to upgrade the definition of CFS. Led by Keiji Fukuda and Stephen Straus of the N.I.
H., the committee revised the definition of CFS and implemented a new version, referred to as the Fukuda definition.
Under Fukuda, the defining criteria were broadened to include fatiguing illnesses across a wide spectrum, and at the same time
narrowed the definition by excluding illness that could be medically explained.
This remains the most widely used definition today.
2003- The Canadian Expert Consensus Panel Clinical Case Definition for ME/CFS, or the “CCC definition,” was developed by a
panel of ME and CFS specialists. For the first time in a definitional context, the illness was referred to as ME/CFS. Post-exertional
malaise was finally recognized as a hallmark symptom of the illness, as were neurological/cognitive symptoms. Neuroendocrine and
immune dysfunctions were also addressed. The definition went on to outline exclusionary illnesses, while remarking that such
illnesses can be co-morbid.
2005 – The CDC further broadened the definition of CFS in an attempt to create a research tool. Technically known as “revised
Fukuda,” the CDC’s inappropriate focus on psychological studies led to a further broadening of the definition, focusing on chronic
unwellness rather than fatigue or any one symptom. This research definition is known colloquially as the “Reeves definition,” or the
Empirical Definition.
From the CFIDS Report: http://cfidsreport.com/News/09_CDC_CFS_Research_Definition.htm
According to the authors of a new study, published in the October 2008 issue of Journal of Disability Studies, revisions to research
definition could have “detrimental consequences…for people with CFS.” The study looked at people with a diagnosis of major
depressive disorder and CFS. According to the researchers, led by De Paul University's Dr. Leonard Jason, roughly four out of ten of
the people diagnosed with major depressive disorder now meet the new research definition for CFS. The authors conclude that the
inclusion of "patients with a primary psychiatric illness in the current CFS case definition could confound the interpretation of
epidemiologic and treatment studies.”
While the W.H.O. has officially recognized Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as an illness, the United States has not. In ignoring an
official illness and simultaneously constructing a mythological illness under the name of “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,” sufferers
across the globe with an M.E. diagnosis have paid the price. Diluting the definition of a real illness by broadening the definition such
that it includes people with unrelated and even psychological disorders has caused confusion, and thus prevented those with the
original physical illness from getting appropriate care, research and benefits.
of CFS into “epidemic” context.
There were many outbreaks globally of similar or identical illnesses before the 1984 outbreak in Incline Village, Nevada, and the
surrounding Lake Tahoe area. There have been many since. But the outbreak in Lake Tahoe is the one that brought the CDC out
to investigate, and the one that gave birth to the name “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.”
Dr. Melvin Ramsay formally coined the name “Myalgic Encephalomyelitis” in 1956, applying it to the Royal Free outbreak in 1955
(see below). After 30 years of investigation into the illness, Ramsay developed a definition of the illness that has stood the test of
time. As Dr. Ramsay stated, “Eponyms such as ‘Akuryeru Disease’. ‘Iceland Disease’ and ‘Royal Free Disease’ have also been used
in the case of particular outbreaks. These have the disadvantage that they obscure the all important fact that the disease has been
reported world-wide.”
The World Health Organization has recognized Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as a distinct organic neurological disorder since 1969.
However, when the CDC created the term “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,” a great many patients who fit the clinical definition of ME
were cut off from a legitimate infectious neurological disease diagnosis, and trapped in the broad wastebasket term “CFS.”
Outbreaks prior to the Incline Village manifestation include (but are not limited to):
1934 Los Angeles County Hospital - Atypical Poliomyelitis
1936 Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin - St. Agnes Convent - Encephalitis
1937 Erstfeld, Switzerland - Abortive Poliomyelitis
1937 St. Gallen, Switzerland - Frohburg Hospital – Abortive Poliomyelitis
1939 Middlesex, England - Harefield Sanatorium - persistent Myalgia following sore throat
1939 Degersheim, Switzerland - Abortive Poliomyelitis
1945 Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania - epidemic Pleurodynia with prominent neurological symptoms and no
demonstrable cause
1946 Iceland – disease resembling Poliomyelitis with the character of Akureyri disease
1948 Iceland, North Coast towns - epidemic simulating Poliomyelitis
1949 Adelaide, South Australia - a disease resembling Poliomyelitis
1950 Louisville, Kentucky -- St. Joseph’s Infirmary - outbreak in nurses’ training school described as “epidemic Neuromyasthenia”
1950 Upper State New York - outbreak resembling the Iceland disease…simulating acute Anterior Poliomyelitis
1952 London, England - Middlesex Hospital Nurses’ Home - Encephalomyelitis associated with Poliomyelitis virus
1952 Copenhagen, Denmark - epidemic Myositis
1952 Lakeland, Florida - epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1953 Coventry and District, England - an illness resembling Poliomyelitis observed in nurses
1953 Rockville, Maryland - Chestnut Lodge Hospital - Poliomyelitis-like epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1953 Jutland, Denmark - epidemic Encephalitis with vertigo
1954 Seward, Alaska - benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (Iceland Disease)
1954 Berlin, Germany - British army - further outbreak of a disease resembling Poliomyelitis
1954 Liverpool, England - outbreak among medical and nursing staff in a local hospital
1955 Dalston, Cumbria, England – epidemic and sporadic outbreak of an unusual disease
1955 London, England - Royal Free Hospital - outbreak in staff and patients of Benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1955 Perth, Australia - virus epidemic in waves
1955 Gilfac Goch, Wales - outbreak of benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1955 Durban City, South Africa - Addington Hospital - outbreak among nurses of “Durban Mystery Disease”
1955 Segbwema, Sierra Leone - outbreak of Encephalomyelitis
1955 Patreksfjorour and Porshofn, Iceland - unusual response to polio vaccine
1955 Northwest London, England - nurses’ residential home - acute Infective Encephalomyelitis simulating poliomyelitis
1956 Ridgefield, Connecticut - epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1956 Punta Gorda Florida - outbreak of epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1956 Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, England - Lymphocytic Meningoencephalitis with myalgia and rash
1956 Pittsfield and Williamstown, Massachusetts - benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1956 Coventry, England - epidemic malaise, benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1957 Brighton, South Australia - Cocksakie Echo virus Meningitis, epidemic Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1958 Athens, Greece - nurses’ school - outbreak of benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis with periostitis and arthopathy noted.
1958 Southwest London, England - reports of sporadic cases of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1959 Newcastle Upon Tyne, England - outbreak of benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1961 Basel, Switzerland - sporadic cases of benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1961 New York State - outbreak of epidemic Neuromyasthenia in a convent
1964 Northwest London, England - epidemic malaise, epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1964 Franklin, Kentucky - outbreak of Neuromyasthenia in a factory
1967 Edinburgh, Scotland - sporadic cases resembling benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1968 Fraidek, Lebanon - benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1969 Brooklyn, New York - State University of New York Downstate Medical Center - epidemic Neuromyasthenia, unidentified
symptom complex
1970 Lackland Air Force Base, Texas - epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1970 London, England - Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children - outbreak of Neuromyasthenia among nurses
1975 Sacramento, California - Mercy San Juan Hospital - Infectious Venulitis, epidemic Phelobodynia
1976 Southwest Ireland - epidemic Neuromyasthenia, benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1977 Dallas – Fort Worth, Texas - epidemic Neuromyasthenia
1979 Southampton, England - Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1980 West Kilbridge, Ayrshire, Scotland - epidemic Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1980 San Francisco, California – epidemic persistent flu-like illness
1981 Stirlingshire, Scotland - sporadic Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1982 West Otago, Dunedin and Hamilton, New Zealand - Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
1983 Los Angeles, California - initial cases of an unknown, chronic symptom complex involving profound “fatigue”
1984 Lake Tahoe Area of California/Nevada - start of a yearlong epidemic involving over 160 cases of chronic
illness eventually characterized as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Around the same time that the Lake Tahoe epidemic was unfolding, clusters of outbreak were occurring in other places as well. A
heavy pocket of illness seemed concentrated throughout Nevada and California, with outbreaks over a period of a few years in
Truckee, Placerville, Sonora, Elk Grove and Roseville, California, as well as in Yerington, Nevada. Other places were experiencing
outbreaks as well. Over 500 cases were documented in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario between August and
November of 1984.
Dr. David Bell, a physician in the small town of Lyndonville, NY, reported an outbreak of 60 children and 150 adults in 1985.
Curiously, the CDC never told Dr. Bell about the Incline Village outbreak.
In August 1984, the Lake Tahoe epidemic started amongst students, beginning with a high school girls’ basketball team.
In November 1984, Dr. Dan Peterson and Dr. Paul Cheney -- two physicians practicing together in the Lake Tahoe town of Incline
Village -- noticed that several of their patients were having experiencing a flu-like illness with a variety of unusual symptoms.
In December 1984, an article by Stephen Straus came out in the Annals of Internal Medicine about cases of a chronic mono-like
condition (chronic EBV). Dr. Peterson tried to tie that paper to the outbreak of illness he had on his hands, but some of his patients
didn’t have EBV at all.
Dr. Peterson called in the CDC, which normally doesn’t respond except through official channels. After extended discussions, the
CDC finally sent epidemiologists Jon Kaplan and Gary Holmes to investigate.
One of the most comprehensive studies of CFS, which came to be known as the Tahoe Study, was based on 259 patients from the
practice of Dr. Peterson and Dr. Cheney.
Annals of Internal Medicine, 15 January 1992; Vol 116 (2): 103-13
Some of the findings of this study included a significantly elevated T4/T8 cell ratio, brain lesions and Natural Killer Cell and B Cell
abnormalities. Direct evidence of active replication of the HHV6 virus and indirect evidence of active replication of the Epstein-Barr
virus were found in a very high proportion of patients, though not in all patients.
From the “Tahoe Study”:
"The illness we have observed shares many features with the entities variably called "postinfectious" or "postviral" fatigue syndrome
(12); myalgic encephalomyelitis, Royal Free disease, or Icelandic disease (13-19); primary fibromyalgia (or fibrositis)
(20-22); chronic mononucleosis (23-25); chronic active Epstein-Barr virus infection syndrome (26-28); and the chronic fatigue
syndrome (29, 30).
"Perhaps these differently named entities are the same illness and share a common etiologic agent; perhaps they are clinically
similar but separate illnesses, with each triggered by a particular and different etiologic agent; or perhaps these entities represent
one illness that can be triggered by various factors and that manifests different clinical features in different patients (perhaps
because of host factors) but causes chronic fatigue and certain common pathophysiologic features in all patients.
"We are more inclined to the last view."
Unable to call the illness Chronic Epstein-Barr Syndrome, the Holmes Committee voted on a “temporary” name – Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome – until the etiology of the illness could be mapped. This name has been used for the illness ever since.
According to Dr. Byron Hyde’s A Brief History of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and an Irreverent History of Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome, there were three Myalgic Encephalomyelitis- literate doctors present at the Committee meeting – Dr. Byron Hyde, Dr.
Alexis Shelekov, and Dr. J. Gordon Parish.
“It was obvious that most of the assembly associated this epidemic disease with Epstein-Barr Virus and infectious Mononucleosis,
what the British refer to as glandular fever. It was immediately apparent that the consensus was going to be highjacked by this
majority. Dr. Shelokov and Dr. Parish decided that this meeting was going nowhere and so decided to leave before it terminated. I
followed them knowing full well that if I was going to learn anything credible about this disease process then I had to understand their
incredible knowledge base that had been developed for over 20 years.
“It was a wise choice for me in terms of acquiring knowledge but it was a bad choice in that had we stayed, we might have influenced
the decision that was to appear in 1988.”
History of “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome” since the name was applied to the illness:
1990 – “Newsweek” refers to the illness as the “yuppie flu,” based on incorrect assumption that it mainly affected upper class
women. “Raggedy Ann Disease” and “Tahoe Crud” were a few of the other descriptors that found their way into the nomenclature.
1992-1994 – The CDC convened a committee to upgrade the definition of CFS. Led by Keiji Fukuda and Stephen Straus of the N.I.
H., the committee revised the definition of CFS and implemented a new version, referred to as the Fukuda definition.
Under Fukuda, the defining criteria were broadened to include fatiguing illnesses across a wide spectrum, and at the same time
narrowed the definition by excluding illness that could be medically explained.
This remains the most widely used definition today.
2003- The Canadian Expert Consensus Panel Clinical Case Definition for ME/CFS, or the “CCC definition,” was developed by a
panel of ME and CFS specialists. For the first time in a definitional context, the illness was referred to as ME/CFS. Post-exertional
malaise was finally recognized as a hallmark symptom of the illness, as were neurological/cognitive symptoms. Neuroendocrine and
immune dysfunctions were also addressed. The definition went on to outline exclusionary illnesses, while remarking that such
illnesses can be co-morbid.
2005 – The CDC further broadened the definition of CFS in an attempt to create a research tool. Technically known as “revised
Fukuda,” the CDC’s inappropriate focus on psychological studies led to a further broadening of the definition, focusing on chronic
unwellness rather than fatigue or any one symptom. This research definition is known colloquially as the “Reeves definition,” or the
Empirical Definition.
From the CFIDS Report: http://cfidsreport.com/News/09_CDC_CFS_Research_Definition.htm
According to the authors of a new study, published in the October 2008 issue of Journal of Disability Studies, revisions to research
definition could have “detrimental consequences…for people with CFS.” The study looked at people with a diagnosis of major
depressive disorder and CFS. According to the researchers, led by De Paul University's Dr. Leonard Jason, roughly four out of ten of
the people diagnosed with major depressive disorder now meet the new research definition for CFS. The authors conclude that the
inclusion of "patients with a primary psychiatric illness in the current CFS case definition could confound the interpretation of
epidemiologic and treatment studies.”
While the W.H.O. has officially recognized Myalgic Encephalomyelitis as an illness, the United States has not. In ignoring an
official illness and simultaneously constructing a mythological illness under the name of “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,” sufferers
across the globe with an M.E. diagnosis have paid the price. Diluting the definition of a real illness by broadening the definition such
that it includes people with unrelated and even psychological disorders has caused confusion, and thus prevented those with the
original physical illness from getting appropriate care, research and benefits.
How an old illness got a new name
TM