Real illness

Discussing whether something is a real illness can mean many different things, including:
 * whether an illness actually exists, or if the name is used to refer to unrelated symptoms
 * whether the illness is better accounted for by a different diagnosis
 * whether the illness symptoms are clinically significant, or if the person is a hypochondriac or one of the "worried well" experiencing normal bodily sensations
 * whether an illness is physical (organic) rather a than psychosomatic illness or a mental illness
 * whether the illness is a legitimate, recognized illness, for example it is listed in a diagnostic manual
 * whether an illness is generally recognized by other physicians
 * whether it is recognizable as a unique illness, rather than simply being a group of symptoms common in many patients
 * whether it is recognized as a serious illness, for example recognized for social security disability or illness payments

ME/CFS
ME/CFS is recognized as a real illness because there is scientific evidence that ME/CFS:
 * has a collection of symptoms which are linked by a disease process, and medical abnormalities have been found which are not present in healthy people.
 * it has been in the World Health Organization's diagnostic manuals since 1969
 * it is classified as a physical, neurological disease by the World Health Organization, and is regarded as a serious physical disease by the CDC and the UK's National Health Service
 * underlying disease processes have been shown to exist by scientific research, and by results of autopsies from people who have died from ME/CFS
 * symptoms cannot be fully explained by any other illness

News and articles

 * 2004, GPs' attitude 'may hinder care'


 * CFS was officially recognised as a genuine illness in the UK by the Royal Colleges of Physicians and General Practitioners in October 1996.
 * But some of the GPs tended to view patients with CFS as having certain undesirable traits such as being "introspective" or having a "low symptom threshold".
 * They saw CFS patients as having "a certain personality trait that is chronic fatigue syndrome waiting to happen".
 * Rosalind Raine and colleagues suggest the doctors' stereotyping of CFS patients meant they saw the condition less as a discrete disorder, and more as a defining feature of the patient.
 * Such stereotyping of IBS did not seem to occur.
 * In contrast, patients with IBS were viewed to "battle through it" and rarely "debilitated to such an extent that they were off work".
 * The study authors said GPs' perceptions about patients with certain conditions might prevent them from assessing and treating each patient as objectively


 * 2016, What not to say to someone with chronic fatigue syndrome - or ME - BBC News
 * 2017, I made a film from my bed to show my illness is real - BBC News
 * 2017 'What it’s like to live with an incurable illness no-one believes is real' - Cosmopolitan UK
 * 2017, About ME: Shining a light on a debilitating disease many believe doesn't exist - Irish Times
 * A sufferer has made a graphic documentary about myalgic encephalomyelitis


 * 2018, ME and chronic fatigue: 'Some doctors don't believe you're sick' BBC News
 * A 22-year-old who suffers from ME says some doctors do not believe the disease exists and patients struggle to get the care and support they need.


 * 2021, How a scientist finally proved chronic fatigue syndrome is real - New York Post

Notable articles

 * 2020, The negative impact of the psychiatric model of chronic fatigue syndrome on doctors' understanding and management of the illness (Full text)
 * 2020, A relational analysis of an invisible illness: A meta-ethnography of people with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) and their support needs (Full text)
 * 2019, Legitimizing myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: indications of change over a decade  - (Abstract)
 * 2019, Dismissing chronic illness: A qualitative analysis of negative health care experiences (Full text)
 * 2019, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: It's Real, and We Can Do Better (Full text)
 * 2019, Ethical classification of ME/CFS in the United Kingdom (Abstract)
 * 2015, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Real Illness (Full text)
 * 2015, The Physical Basis of CFS (Full text)
 * 2007, Not in the mind of neurasthenic lazybones but in the cell nucleus: patients with chronic fatigue syndrome have increased production of nuclear factor kappa beta
 * 1992, ME: is it a genuine disease? (Abstract)

Learn more
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 * Definition online
 * Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: It's Real, and We Can Do Better - Medscape (registration needed)