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ME/CFS South Australia Inc supports the needs of sufferers of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and related illnesses. We do this by providing services and information to members.
Disclaimer
ME/CFS South Australia Inc aims to keep members informed of various research projects, diets, medications, therapies, news items, etc. All communication, both verbal and written, is merely to disseminate information and not to make recommendations or directives.
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed on this Web site are not necessarily the official views of the Society or its Committee and are not simply an endorsement of products or services.
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Quote of the week
Wednesday 4 June 2008
In what must be the quote of the week, Leonard Jason (pictured), a professor of psychology at DePaul University, talked about the perception some people have about ME/CFS in an interview for The New York Times in a recent article.
During the interview, Jason was asked about the name “chronic fatigue syndrome”:
The name is unfortunate. It’s a terrible name, because fatigue is the focus and that is differently experienced by people who are healthy than by people who have this illness.
I do think if we called bronchitis or emphysema “chronic cough syndrome,” you’d probably have very little respect for those people, but a name that’s more medical sounding changes people’s perceptions.
When you have a more medical-sounding name, you’re saying the illness is not something fluffy, to be downplayed and ignored, and health care personnel think of it as more serious, more debilitating. I hope there will be a new name, but the problem is you don’t change names lightly, even bad names, because people come to recognize an illness by a name. I think changing it will confuse a lot of people, so it better be a new name that has broader acceptability among patients and researchers.
The full article can be found here:
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The New York Times: Learning Firsthand About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (external link) |
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Registered Charity 3104
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