Rosemary Underhill
Rosemary A. Underhill, MB. B.S. (1937-2021) also known as Rosemary Underhill O'Gorman, was a Physician Consultant and a Fellow of Royal College of Surgeons.[1] Underhill trained as a physician, a surgeon and an obstetrician in London, England and was a medical student when she witnessed the Royal Free Hospital outbreak in 1955.[2]
Dr. Underhill was a consultant and member of the board of Trustees of the New Jersey ME/CFS Association for many years. Dr Underhill died in 2021.[2][3]
School phobia / school refusal[edit | edit source]
Dr Underhill highlighted the misdiagnosis of ME/CFS in children as a mental disorder or parental problem:
"ME/CFS has often been misdiagnosed, as School Avoidance Behavior, or as Munchausen's syndrome by proxy (a condition in which, a parent fabricates their child's illness)."[4]
2017 Pediatric Primer[edit | edit source]
Dr. Underhill was one of the authors of the 2017 Pediatric Primer published in Frontiers in Pediatrics.
- Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diagnosis and Management in Young People: A Primer by Peter C. Rowe, Rosemary A. Underhill, Kenneth J. Friedman, Alan Gurwitt, Marvin S. Medow, Malcolm S. Schwartz, Nigel Speight, Julian M. Stewart, Rosamund Vallings and Katherine S. Rowe[5] (Full Text)
2021 Royal Free outbreak follow-up[edit | edit source]
In 2021, fifty-eight years after the Royal Free Hospital outbreak of myalgic encephalomyelitis, Underhill and Baillod interviewed former hospital staff, including some who developed ME. They found that the former staff's description of the patients was inconsistent with McEvedy and Beard's hypothesis that the illness was psychosomatic, i.e., physical illness caused by mass hysteria or psychoneurosis. The former staff described clear objective signs that the cause of illness was physical in origin, and stated that most staff at the time believed it was the result of an infectious disease.[6]
Books[edit | edit source]
- 2002, Dr. Underhill was on the writing committee for A Consensus Manual for the Primary Care and Management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Joseph F. John, Jr., MD, Editor and James M. Oleske, MD, MPH, Associate Editor.[7]
Hypothesis on the disease ME/CFS[edit | edit source]
Myalgic encephalomyelitis, chronic fatigue syndrome: An infectious disease - Medical Hypotheses December 2015 Volume 85, Issue 6, Pages 765–773
Clinical guides[edit | edit source]
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis - Primer for Clinical Practitioners 2014 Edition IACFS/ME (Co-author.)
- A Consensus Manual for the Primary Care and Management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome The Academy of Medicine of New Jersey and the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services. (Writing committee member.)
Notable articles[edit | edit source]
- 2021, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Organic Disease or Psychosomatic Illness? A Re-Examination of the Royal Free Epidemic of 1955[6] (Full text)
- 2007, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Children and Adolescents[4] - (Full text)
- 2006, Prevalence of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue Within Families of CFS Patients[8] - (Abstract)
Open letter to The Lancet[edit | edit source]
Two open letters to the editor of The Lancet urged the editor to commission a fully independent review of the PACE trial, which the journal had published in 2011. In 2016, Dr. Underhill, along with 41 colleagues in the ME/CFS field, signed the second letter.
- 10 February 2016, An open letter to The Lancet, again - Virology blog
CFSAC testimony[edit | edit source]
- October 2012 Public Comment to CFSAC - "Suggested protocol for investigating cluster outbreaks of ME/CFS"
See also[edit | edit source]
- Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diagnosis and Management in Young People: A Primer
- Open letter to the Lancet
- Royal Free Hospital outbreak
- New Jersey ME/CFS Association
Learn more[edit | edit source]
- Obituary - 2021
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Rosemary Underhill - Zoom Information
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Rosemary O'Gorman Obituary - Flagler Beach, FL". Dignity Memorial. Retrieved November 6, 2021.
- ↑ "Research Published". New Jersey ME/CFS Association. 2015. Retrieved November 6, 2021.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Underhill, Rosemary (2007), Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Children and Adolescents (PDF), New Jersey Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Association, Inc
- ↑ Rowe, Peter C.; Underhill, Rosemary A.; Friedman, Kenneth J.; Gurwitt, Alan; Medow, Marvin S.; Schwartz, Malcolm S.; Speight, Nigel; Stewart, Julian M.; Vallings, Rosamund; Rowe, Katherine S. (2017). "Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diagnosis and Management in Young People: A Primer". Frontiers in Pediatrics. 5: 121. doi:10.3389/fped.2017.00121.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Underhill, Rosemary; Baillod, Rosemarie (January 2021). "Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Organic Disease or Psychosomatic Illness? A Re-Examination of the Royal Free Epidemic of 1955". Medicina. 57 (1): 12. doi:10.3390/medicina57010012. PMC 7824095. PMID 33375343.
- ↑ Oleske JJ. A Consensus Manual for the Primary Care and Management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The Academy of Medicine of New Jersey, The New Jersey Department of Health & Senior Services; 2002.
- ↑ Rosemary A. Underhill & Ruth O'Gorman. (2006). Prevalence of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue Within Families of CFS Patients. Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Vol. 13, Iss. 1, pp. 3-13.
