“The society which has abolished every kind of adventure makes its own abolition the only possible adventure.” Paris, May 1968


Friday 29 July 2011

CFS lobby hits out at research.

Medical science does not have the answer to everything despite all the years of propaganda regarding "choice" and the patient as consumer with consumer rights. Trouble is we tend to think that we are entitled to some answers and can get pretty narked when the answers are not forthcoming. When doctors are confronted by a collection of signs and symptoms that can't be accounted for they frequently refer to the illness as a "syndrome". For the patient the pain and distress is real enough and as test after test fails to show anything wrong the sufferer becomes ever more frustrated; prime targets for the snake oil salesmen of alternative medicine and ideal conscripts for the cult of dissatisfaction with the medical profession.
Yuppie Flu, or to give the condition it's more sympathetic name of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), is one such inexplicable ailment. Recent research has looked at a possible link with mental illness and this has been enough to motivate some sections of the highly vocal CFS lobby to deluge the researchers with hate mail and demand that research be focused on looking for a suitable virus rather than a psychological condition. Sufferers clearly aren't too knackered to flex their muscles as consumers. It's a wonder that they have the energy.

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