Alan Gurwitt

Alan R. Gurwitt, MD, retired adult and child psychiatrist from Massachusetts, USA, and Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Formerly an Associate Clinical Professor, Yale Child Study Center and University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

He has served as the Psychiatric Association President of the Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association and on the Guidelines Committee of the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.

Education

 * M.D., Yale School of Medicine

Writings

 * 26 June 2015, Health Rising blog by Dr. Gurwitt - No Signs of Life at the Big Health Agencies "Excerpt: 'In summary, nothing will change until we change. We must not wait for the federal health agencies nor should we go it alone. We must take a series of steps. One step is to create a multi-pronged coordinated and comprehensive effort to recruit congressional support. We must also build a strong national coalition of patients, advocates, and professionals. We have many wonderfully informed, thoughtful, and active patient advocates among us but our failure to coalesce has created a major obstacle. The challenges are great so our efforts must be greatly smarter, focused, and more effective. Failure to change our efforts and directions will doom us to remaining stuck. We should utilize our own capacities and wait no more.'"


 * 2014, Dr. Gurwitt was a member of the Primer writing committee for the 2014 edition of [[ME/CFS: A Primer For Clinical Practitioners]] sponsored by the International Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. Dr.Fred Friedberg chaired the committee. Other Primer writing committee members include: Rosemary Underhill, MB, BS; Lucinda Bateman, MD; Alison Bested, MD; Todd Davenport, DPT; Kenneth Friedman, PhD; Alan Gurwitt, MD; Leonard Jason, PhD; Charles Lapp, MD; Staci Stevens, MA; and Rosamund Vallings, MB, BS. Anthony Komaroff, MD wrote the foreword to the Primer.


 * June 2012, Dr. Alan Gurwitt's letter to DSM-V Committee of the APA "Excerpt: 'The bottom line is that CFS and fibromyalgia are not psychological illnesses. It is then essential that the American Psychiatric Association vigorously help educate graduate and resident psychiatrists on this essential truth. While the wording and criteria for 'Complex Somatic Symptom Disorder' will matter so as to avoid confusing chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia with a somatoform disorder it will be new understanding of the biological nature, proper diagnostic techniques, and appropriate treatments of these illnesses that will matter most.'"


 * 2006, "A Pediatric Case Definition for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome""'Summary: For a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), most researchers use criteria that were developed by Fukuda et al. (1994), with modifications suggested by Reeves et al. (2003). However, this case definition was established for adults rather than children. A Canadian Case Definition (ME/CFS; Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/CFS) has recently been developed, with more specific inclusion criteria (Carruthers et al., 2003). Again, the primary aim of this case definition is to diagnose adult CFS. A significant problem in the literature is the lack of both a pediatric definition of ME/CFS and a reliable instrument to assess it. These deficiencies can lead to criterion variance problems resulting in studies labeling children with a wide variety of symptoms as having ME/CFS. Subsequently, comparisons between articles become more difficult, decreasing the possibility of conducting a meta-analysis. This article presents recommendations developed by the International Association of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Pediatric Case Definition Working group for a ME/CFS pediatric case definition. It is hoped that this pediatric case definition will lead to more appropriate identification of children and adolescents with ME/CFS.'"

CFSAC

 * Oct 2012, Presentation to the Chronic Fatigue Advisory Committee about the Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association including past and proposed projects.