Colin McEvedy
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Dr Colin Peter McEvedy (1930-2005) was a British consultant psychiatrist McEvedy best known for his research on hysteria, bubonic plague and the history of polio.[1]
Benign myalgic encephalomyelitis controversy[edit | edit source]
In 1970, Colin McEvedy and fellow psychiatrist A William Beard published an influential study of 15 epidemics of myalgic encephalomyelitis, then known as benign myalgic encephalomyelitis, concluding that the illness was the result of psychosocial phenomena, and caused by either "mass hysteria on the part of patients" or "altered medical perception of the community".
The authors reached their conclusions in spite of the fact that "no patient was examined, no history was taken, not even was there any consultation with any of the senior or junior physicians who had been responsible for examining and treating these injured patients"[2], and justified them in part based on patients being predominantly women, saying, "We believe these epidemiological peculiarities — the predilection for young women and for institutions containing an undue proportion of them — provide good positive evidence for mass hysteria as an explanation of the illness.”[3]
Asked years later by Lord Byron Hyde, "Why had he written up the Free Hospital epidemics as hysteria without any careful exploration of the basis of his thesis?", McEvedy replied, "It was an easy PhD, why not."[2]
The published paper was covered in Time magazine[4], and resulted in, "funding [for ME research] from governments and major donors [drying] up and many physicians, perhaps influenced as much by a Time Magazine article as in the British Medical Journal, [turning] their back on this significant illness that was Myalgic Encephalomyelitis."[2]
Notable studies[edit | edit source]
- 1970, Concept of Benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis[3] (Full text)
See also[edit | edit source]
- History of myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome
- William Beard
- Epidemic myalgic encephalomyelitis
Learn more[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Richmond, Caroline (October 8, 2005). "Colin McEvedy". BMJ : British Medical Journal. 331 (7520): 847. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 1246098.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Hyde, Byron (May 12, 2006). "A new and simple definition of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and a new simple definition of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & A Brief History of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and an Irreverent History of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" (PDF). Irish M.E. Trust. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 9, 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 McEvedy, CP; Beard, AW. "Concept of Benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis". British Medical Journal. 1 (5687): 11–5. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.5687.11. PMC 1700895. PMID 5411596.
- ↑ "Behavior: Mass Hysteria | TIME". time.com. Retrieved December 9, 2025.
