Eleanor Stein

Eleanor (Ellie) Stein, MD, FRCP(C), is a psychiatrist in private practice in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Calgary. She is the founder of the ETeam, "a unique service in Canada offering specialized multidisciplinary assessment for clients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and Toxic Chemical and Mold Exposure."

Awards

 * 2007, 13th Annual Florence Nightingale award from the Edmonton ME Society for continued support in the area of education, awareness and research on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
 * 2007, John MacLennan Award of the Canadian Society for Environmental Medicine for Excellence in the field of Environmental Medicine

Open letters

 * 2017, Dr. Stein was one of the signers of An open letter to Psychological Medicine about “recovery” and the PACE trial
 * 2016, Dr. Stein was one of the signers of the Open letter to the Lancet urging its editor to commission a fully independent review of the PACE trial as published in its journal.

Notable studies

 * 2015, The Nature of Fatigue in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"'Abstract - In this article, we report the findings of our study on the nature of fatigue in patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. Using ethnoscience as a design, we conducted a series of unstructured interviews and card sorts to learn more about how people with chronic fatigue syndrome describe fatigue. Participants (N = 14) described three distinct domains: tiredness, fatigue, and exhaustion. Most participants experienced tiredness prior to diagnosis, fatigue during daily life, and exhaustion after overexertion. We also discuss participants’ ability to adapt to a variety of stressors and prevent shifts to exhaustion, and relate our findings to stress theory and other current research. Primary strategies that promoted adaptation to stressors included pacing and extended rest periods. These findings can aid health care professionals in detecting impending shifts between tiredness, fatigue, and exhaustion and in improving adaptive strategies, thereby improving quality of life.'"
 * 2011, No Evidence for XMRV Nucleic Acids, Infectious Virus or Anti-XMRV Antibodies in Canadian Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - (FULL TEXT)
 * 2001, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Overcoming the Attitudinal Impasse"'Summary - Context: Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and their physicians are often in conflict about the etiology and treatment of CFS. Objectives: 1. Survey the literature regarding physician's attitudes towards CFS; 2. Examine the contributing factors to physician's attitude towards the disorder; and 3. Suggest solutions. Data Sources: The relevant medical and psychological literature (years 1988-2000) was searched using the search term “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.” This was supplemented with papers from the bibliographies of the retrieved papers, additional related literature, and clinical experience.Data Synthesis: Forty-six to ninety percent of GPs accept CFS as a discrete clinical entity and 30-82% are willing to make the diagnosis in qualifying patients. Conclusions: CFS is a heterogeneous, multifactorial host response disorder that is inadequately described by the biomedical model. Despite substantial evidence of multisystemic physical abnormality in CFS, the lack of pathognomic tests and the female gender predominance cause some physicians to continue to treat CFS as a psychosocial disorder. This leads to conflict between patients and physicians. CFS challenges physicians to think beyond current disease models, to tolerate diagnostic and therapeutic uncertainty, and to work collaboratively with patients rather than taking the role of expert.'"

Clinic location

 * 4523-16 A Street SW
 * Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Talks & interviews

 * 2011,"Differentiating ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia from Psychiatric Disorders" - Eleanor Stein, MD at the 10th International IACFSME Conference, Patient Agenda

Online presence

 * Website