Chronic Fatigue Finally Gets The Name It Deserves

WASHINGTON (AP) — Doctors are getting a new way to diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome — and influential government advisers say it's time to replace that hated name, too, to show it's a real and debilitating disease. The Institute of Medicine on Tuesday called on doctors to do a better job diagnosing an illness that may affect up to 2.5 million Americans, and it set five main symptoms as the criteria. And the IOM's choice of a new name — Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease, or SEID — reflects a core symptom, that exertion can wipe patients out. "This is not a figment of their imagination," said Dr. Ellen Wright Clayton of Vanderbilt University's Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, who chaired the IOM panel. "These patients have real symptoms. They deserve real care." Here are some things to know about the disorder: WHATEVER IT'S CALLED, WHAT IS THIS ILLNESS? Its hallmark is persistent and profound fatigue where, on a bad day, a simple activity like grocery shopping can put someone to bed. It's often accompanied by memory problems or other symptoms. Laura Hillenbrand, author of best-sellers "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption" and "Seabiscuit: An American Legend," has put a public face to the confusing illness. "Well, in the years in which I've been exhausted it's been something where I've had to drag myself to my computer or to my telephone to do interviews," she said on CBS' "Face the Nation" last December. While wo...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news