Per Fink

Source:ResearchGate

Per Fink is head Professor, MD, PhD, DMSc of The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics at Aarhus Universitetshospital in Denmark, which treats people with Bodily Distress Disorder, health anxiety and psychosomatic illness.

ME/CFS

His approach to chronic fatigue syndrome is to classify it as a Functional Disorder with medically unexplained physical symptoms rather than a biological physical illness. Fink's treatment approach to ME/CFS is opposed by Danish patient group ME Foreningen.

He co-authored the leaflet Information About Functional Disorders - When the body says stop, published the The Danish Committee for Health Education and issued in co-operation with The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University and the Research Unit for General Practice.

In 2019, the Danish parliament unanimously voted to separate ME/CFS from functional disorders (medically unexplained symptoms), and to treat the disease as a physical neurological illness using the World Health Organization classification rather than as psychosomatic illness, and called upon the department of health to update its information.

Notable studies

• 2012 - Cognitive–behavioural group treatment for a range of functional somatic syndromes: randomised trial.

• Dec 7, 2016, James Coyne's PLOS ONE blog post critique of Per Fink's 2012 paper: Danish RCT of cognitive behavior therapy for whatever ails your physician about you

• 2017, Long-term economic evaluation of cognitive-behavioural group treatment versus enhanced usual care for functional somatic syndromes
• 2017, Syndromes of bodily distress or functional somatic syndromes - Where are we heading. Lecture on the occasion of receiving the Alison Creed award 2017

Controversies and criticism

Per Fink has applies the biopsychosocial model (BPS) to the organic biological disease myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), using a biopsychosocial approach rather than biomedical treatment. Fink's recommended treatment for ME is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET), and he claims most people will be cured or significantly better after treatment.

Karina Hansen's institutionalization

Karina Hansen is a Danish woman who became ill with ME as a young adult. An attempt was made to remove Karina from her home in 2012; after this incident, she arranged for her parents to have power of attorney, in case she was declared unfit.

On February 12, 2013, Karina Hansen was removed from her home and taken to Hammel Neurocenter. She was 24 years old. Only months later her sister, a nurse, visited Karina and found her condition had deteriorated to the point that she could no longer speak. Per Fink was one of two doctors overseeing her "treatment".

In October of 2014, Karina was moved to a nearby rehabilitation center for brain injury, where she was allowed limited contact with her family. Though she was physically clean and cared-for, she was in a wheelchair and unable to speak clearly. She did not recognize her father at all when he visited her in December of 2015.

Although Karina was already very ill when she was taken from her home, at that time she was still able to stand up occasionally and clearly communicate with others. Her current condition represents a frightening deterioration in her physical and mental health, whether from ME-induced neurological damage, severe over-medication, trauma as a result of her circumstances, or some combination of all three. Though there is no certainty regarding how Karina was treated at Hammel Neurocenter, the recommended treatment for ME in Denmark consists of CBT, GET, occupational therapy, and psychotropic medications.

It took a Danish High Court Case to bring Karina back home three-and-a-half years later.

In 2018, Per Fink made a statement on the Aarhus University Hospital website criticizing a media campaign about an unnamed patient that may have been Karina, and claiming that no patient had ever been held at the clinic against their will, and that the Danish parliament had investigated and found no wrongdoing on part of the clinic. Aarhus University Hospital had been reported as advising the Hammel Neurocenter where Karina was held, and protests were held outside both clinics.

Clinic location

Aarhus University Hospital, Norrebrogade 44, DK-8000 Aarhus C

Tel. +45 7845 0000

Email: auh@rm.dk

Talks and interviews

• 2004 The TERM Model: An advanced educational program for non-psychiatric physicians

• 2012, Somatoform disorders – functional somatic syndromes – Bodily distress syndrome. Need for care and organisation of care in an international perspective - EACLPP Lecture

Online presence

• PubMed
• LinkedIn

Learn more

• Affiliated Institution: Aarhus University Hospital
• 2015, Per Fink complains about IOM ME/CFS report (Institute of Medicine report)

See also

• Denmark
• ME Foreningen
• Karina Hansen
• Biopsychosocial model
• Medically unexplained physical symptoms

medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) - Technically, this term means that no cause or explanation for the patient's symptoms has yet been found. However, patients diagnosed with "MUPS" are generally lumped into a psychosomatic, or psychologically-caused category by those in the medical profession, without any scientific basis for doing so.

somatic symptom disorder A psychiatric term to describe an alleged condition whereby a person's thoughts somehow cause physical symptoms. The actual existence of such a condition is highly controversial, due to a lack of scientific evidence. It is related to other psychiatric terms, such as "psychosomatic", "neurasthenia", and "hysteria". Older terms include "somatization", "somatoform disorder", and "conversion disorder". Such terms refer to a scientifically-unsupported theory that claims that a wide range of physical symptoms can be created by the human mind, a theory which has been criticized as "mind over matter" parapsychology, a pseudoscience.

somatic An adjective relating to the physical body or physical symptoms. It is often contrasted with the adjective "psychological", which refers to the human mind or mental symptoms. In biology, "somatic cells" refer to all the cells of the body, except those which form an egg or sperm.

biopsychosocial model (BPS) - A school of thought, usually based in psychology, which claims illness and disease to be the result of the intermingling of biological, psychological and social causes. (Learn more: me-pedia.org)

biopsychosocial model (BPS) - A school of thought, usually based in psychology, which claims illness and disease to be the result of the intermingling of biological, psychological and social causes. (Learn more: me-pedia.org)

cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) - A type of psychotherapy geared toward modifying alleged unhealthy thinking, behaviors or illness beliefs. One of the treatment arms used in the controversial PACE trial.

graded exercise therapy (GET) - A gradual increase in exercise or activity, according to a pre-defined plan. Focuses on overcoming the patient's alleged unhelpful illness beliefs that exertion can exacerbate symptoms, rather than on reversing physical deconditioning. Considered controversial, and possibly harmful, in the treatment or management of ME. One of the treatment arms of the controversial PACE trial.

cognition Thought processes, including attention, reasoning, and memory.

somatic symptom disorder A psychiatric term to describe an alleged condition whereby a person's thoughts somehow cause physical symptoms. The actual existence of such a condition is highly controversial, due to a lack of scientific evidence. It is related to other psychiatric terms, such as "psychosomatic", "neurasthenia", and "hysteria". Older terms include "somatization", "somatoform disorder", and "conversion disorder". Such terms refer to a scientifically-unsupported theory that claims that a wide range of physical symptoms can be created by the human mind, a theory which has been criticized as "mind over matter" parapsychology, a pseudoscience.