Angela Kennedy

Angela Kennedy is the author of the book Authors of our Own Misfortune? The Problems with Psychogenic Explanations for Physical Illnesses and was an advocate for the rights of the ME community from 2003-2015. She is a carer to her daughter who was given an ME diagnosis two years into her illness. She is a sociologist primarily researching in sociology of science, medicine, disability and health. Kennedy was active with the advocacy group The One Click Group from 2004-2006. She has written extensively on the PACE trial and its flaws, on psychogenic explanations for physical explanations for physical impairments, and on research methodology in the literature on ME/CFS and other conditions.

Selected Publications

1. 'The social myth of mind over matter' Response to Chalder et al ('Epidemiology of chronic fatigue syndrome and self reported myalgic encephalomyelitis in 5-15 year olds: cross sectional study' BMJ 2003; 327: 654-655) 26 September 2003.

2"Re: your own worst enemy' Response to Thomas Szasz (The psychiatric protection order for the "battered mental patient" BMJ 2003; 327: 1449-1451) 29 December 2003.

8. 'When Doctors say 'Psychosomatic', What do they Mean?' Quest (Magazine of the Canadian National ME/FM Action Network) No. 66, Fall 2004.

3. 'Some serious problems in Doctors' attitudes towards ME/CFS sufferers uncovered' Response to Raine et al ('General practitioners' perceptions of chronic fatigue syndrome and beliefs about its management, compared with irritable bowel syndrome: qualitative study BMJ 2004; 328: 1354-1357) 28 May 2004.

4.' The term 'heartsink' is an insult to patients' Response to Scott Pereira (Immunology BMJ Career Focus 2004; 329: 113-a-114-a).

5. 'Failure to consider the issue of differential diagnosis now inexcusable' Response to Viner and Christie ('Fatigue and somatic symptoms BMJ 2005; 330: 1012-1015') 3 May 2005.

6.'Some key issues neglected in this paper' Response to Thomas and Smith ("Primary healthcare provision and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a survey of patients' and General Practitioners' beliefs" BMC Family Practice 2005, 6:49 doi:10.1186/1471-2296-6-49) 22 August 2006. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2296/6/49/comments#241516

7. 'Problems in the Pace trial' Response to White et al ('Protocol for the PACE trial: A randomised controlled trial of adaptive pacing, cognitive behaviour therapy, and graded exercise as supplements to standardised specialist medical care versus standardised specialist medical care alone for patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis or encephalopathy' BMC Neurology 2007, 7:6) 13 November 2007.

8. 'Re: Author's Response' Response to Wessely et al, PLOSONE 13 January 2010 http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?root=1669

9. 'The 'validity' of patient needs in 'CFS'?' Response to Drachler et al ('The expressed needs of people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: A systematic review' BMC Public Health 2009, 9:458) 1 February 2010. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/458/comments

10. 'What were the characteristics of the patient cohort?' Response to Groom et al ('Absence of xenotropic murine leukaemia virus-related virus in UK patients with chronic fatigue syndrome' Retrovirology 2010, 7:10) 22 February 2010.  http://www.retrovirology.com/content/7/1/10/comments#393658

11. 'Questions about 'CFS' and 'ICF' selection criteria of cohort' Response to Byrnes et al ('Expression in Peripheral Blood Leukocytes in Monozygotic Twins Discordant for Chronic Fatigue: No Evidence of a Biomarker' PLoS ONE 4(6): e5805 2009) 3 January 2011. http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?root=3801

12. Stakeholder Submission to the American Psychiatric Association on the proposed DSM-5 Criteria made January 2011. http://dxrevisionwatch.com/dsm-5-proposals/dsm-5-submissions-2011/2/

13. Authors of our Own Misfortune? The Problems with Psychogenic Explanations for Physical Illnesses (2012) Market Rasen, The Village Digital Press.

14. “'Cost-effectiveness' is irrelevant when safety has not even been addressed in the PACE trial” Response to McCrone et al (“Adaptive Pacing, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Graded Exercise, and Specialist Medical Care for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis”) PlosONE August 01, 2012 http://www.plosone.org/annotation/listThread.action?root=52481

15. "SSD" reifies and rejiggles already unsound concepts of 'psychogenic illness' Response to Frances ('The new somatic symptom disorder in DSM-5 risks mislabelling many people as mentally ill' BMJ 2013;346:f1580) 21 March 2013. http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f1580/rr/637165

16. “Bad thoughts can’t make you sick, that’s just magical thinking” Aeon Opinions 18 November 2015 https://aeon.co/opinions/bad-thoughts-can-t-make-you-sick-that-s-just-magical-thinking

Online Presence

• Angela is on Twitter

BMJ The BMJ (previously the British Medical Journal) is a weekly peer-reviewed medical journal.

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 symptoms Physical or bodily symptoms. May be used to mean bodily symptoms that are not the result of a known physical or biological illness.

somatic symptoms Physical or bodily symptoms. May be used to mean bodily symptoms that are not the result of a known physical or biological illness.

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.

PACE trial A controversial study which claimed that CBT and GET were effective in treating "CFS/ME", despite the fact that its own data did not support this conclusion. Its results and methodology were widely disputed by patients, scientists, and the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

randomized controlled trial (RCT) - A trial in which participants are randomly assigned to two groups, with one group receiving the treatment being studied and a control or comparison group receiving a sham treatment, placebo, or comparison treatment.

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

myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.) - A disease often marked by neurological symptoms, but fatigue is sometimes a symptom as well. Some diagnostic criteria distinguish it from chronic fatigue syndrome, while other diagnostic criteria consider it to be a synonym for chronic fatigue syndrome. A defining characteristic of ME is post-exertional malaise (PEM), or post-exertional neuroimmune exhaustion (PENE), which is a notable exacerbation of symptoms brought on by small exertions. PEM can last for days or weeks. Symptoms can include cognitive impairments, muscle pain (myalgia), trouble remaining upright (orthostatic intolerance), sleep abnormalities, and gastro-intestinal impairments, among others. An estimated 25% of those suffering from ME are housebound or bedbound. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies ME as a neurological disease.

chronic fatigue (CF) - Persistent and abnormal fatigue is a symptom, not an illness. It may be caused by depression, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome or many other illnesses. The term "chronic fatigue" should never be confused with the disease chronic fatigue syndrome.

American Psychiatric Association (APA) - The main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. Not to be confused with the American Psychological Association (also APA).

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) - A psychiatric reference book published by the American Psychiatric Association, often referred to as "the psychiatrist's Bible". Although the most recent version (DSM-5) purports to be the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders, the editors of both previous versions of the manual have heavily criticized the current version due to the climate of secrecy that shrouded the development of the latest version. 69% of the people who worked on DSM-5 reported having ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Allen Frances, who headed the development of the previous version, warned of dangerous unintended consequences such as new false 'epidemics'. The British Psychological Society criticized DSM-5 diagnoses as "clearly based largely on social norms, with 'symptoms' that all rely on subjective judgements" and expressed a major concern that "clients and the general public are negatively affected by the continued and continuous medicalisation of their natural and normal responses to their experiences". A petition signed by over 13,000 mental health professionals stated that the lowered diagnostic thresholds in DSM-5, combined with entirely subjective criteria based on western social norms, would "lead to inappropriate medical treatment of vulnerable populations". The director of the US National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Thomas R. Insel, pointed out that the diagnoses in DSM-5 had no scientific validity whatsoever. (Learn more: www.scientificamerican.com)

pacing The practice of staying within one's "energy envelope" or personal limit by combining periods of activity with periods of rest or avoiding exerting beyond a certain level. ME/CFS patients use pacing to avoid or reduce post-exertional malaise (PEM). Some patients use a heart rate monitor to help with pacing.

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

social security disability (SSD) - United States government disability benefits. Used for those who have previously paid tax and is not means tested. (Learn more: me-pedia.org)

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.