John Whiting

John L. Whiting, MD, FRACP, Infectious Disease and Internal Medicine physician in Brisbane, Australia, has concentrated his focus on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and related conditions since 1987. He is one of the researchers at Melbourne Bioanalytics, an Australian research group specializing in metabolomics, genomics and microbiomics research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).

Advocacy

Open letter to The Lancet

• 19 June 2018, Dr Whiting signed an open letter to the editor of The Lancet urging the editor to commission a fully independent review of the PACE trial, which the journal published in 2011.

Notable studies

• 1994, Illness behaviour of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome
• 1995, Quality of life in chronic fatigue syndrome
• 1998, Coincidental Splenectomy in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Clinic location

15 Morrow Street Taringa, Queensland, 4068, Australia

Talks and interviews

• 2016, International Association for CFS/ME (IACFS/ME) conference, Florida, US

Online presence

• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Learn more

• Melbourne Bioanalytics

See myalgic encephalomyelitis.

See chronic fatigue syndrome.

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.

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.