I have recently had a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal, Bulletin of the IACFS/ME. It is entitled, "Reporting of Harms Associated with Graded Exercise
Therapy and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy in Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome". It is open access and can be read at:
http://iacfsme.org/BULLETINFALL2011/Fall2011KindlonHarmsPaperABSTRACT/tabid/501/Default.aspx .Section 5.1 ["Recognize heterogeneity of patients with a diagnosis of ME/CFS"] discusses the (so-called) empiric criteria amongst other things.
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This is a nice piece that gives a good overview, in my opinion, of the CDC, its response to the CDC and why many patients are concerned. It covers the topic of the empiric criteria well in my opinion. There is no mathematics in it that I noticed and generally doesn't appear technical. It is quite long but once somebody reads this, they should have a reasonably good understanding about where many advocates, and some concerned clinicians and scientists, are coming from.http://www.virology.ws/2011/11/23/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-and-the-cdc-a-long-tangled-taleChronic Fatigue Syndrome and the CDC: A Long, Tangled Tale23 NOVEMBER 2011by David TullerNote: This account draws from interviews, a close reading of a fraction of the 4608 epidemiologic studies that pop up (as of today; yesterday it was 4606) on a PubMed search for “chronic fatigue syndrome,” and a review of many pages of government documents–in particular the minutes and testimony from meetings of the Chronic Fatigue...
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New paper: -----------Data mining: comparing the empiric CFS to the Canadian
ME/CFS case definition.
J Clin Psychol. 2011 Aug 5. doi: 10.1002/jclp.20827. [Epub ahead of print]
Jason LA, Skendrovic B, Furst J, Brown A, Weng A,
Bronikowski C.
Source: DePaul University. Ljason@depaul.edu.
Abstract
This article contrasts two case definitions for myalgic
encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). We compared the empiric
CFS case definition (Reeves et al., 2005) and the Canadian ME/CFS clinical case
definition (Carruthers et al., 2003) with a sample of individuals with CFS
versus those without. Data mining with decision trees was used to identify the
best items to identify patients with CFS. Data mining is a statistical
technique that was used to help determine which of the survey questions were
most effective for accurately classifying cases. The empiric criteria
identified about 79% of...
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At the NIH State of the Knowledge (SoK) Workshop on ME/CFS on April 7-8, 2011, Leonard A. Jason, Ph.D., DePaul University gave a presentation, "A Focus on Diagnostic Criteria and Case Definitions". This included criticisms of the CDC's empiric criteria. It can be watched at: http://videocast.nih.gov/Summary.asp?File=16575 . It is (very approximately) from 40:00-76:30 - a lot of the time is devoted to questions and discussion.
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Prof. Leonard Jason has written a piece on the history of ME/CFS for the Wall Street Journal which includes a short criticism of the CDC's (so-called) empiric criteria:
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, an Illness That's Hard to Live With - Or Define
http://on.wsj.com/ijFmrH
i.e.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704507404576179031979295592.html
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While mentioning it, I thought I'd also mention another article from the same edition:
http://on.wsj.com/dG5kap
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
THE SATURDAY ESSAY
MARCH 5, 2011
The Puzzle of Chronic Fatigue
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There's also a 6-minute video at this link
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Defining an Illness Is Fodder for Debate
By DAVID TULLER
Published: March 4, 2011
http://nyti.ms/fOwB03
i.e.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/health/research/08fatigue.html?_r=2
David Tuller has been published some articles on ME/CFS that are not simply based on press releases.
This one includes Leonard Jason criticising the (so-called) empiric criteria.
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Another Leonard Jason et al. paper questioning the empiric criteria:
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"These results indicate that the Reeves et al. empiric CFS case definition would not be considered a good diagnostic tool for selecting CFS cases among a sample of CFS and MDD cases."
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Disability Studies Quarterly, Vol 31, No 1 (2011)
Fatigue Scales And Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Issues Of Sensitivity And Specificity
*Leonard Jason, Jason Meredyth Evans, Molly Brown, Nicole Porter, Abigail Brown, Jessica Hunnell, Valerie Anderson, Athena Lerch*
The full text of this is available for free at:
<http://www.dsq-sds.org/article/view/1375/1540>
The second part of this paper tests the empiric criteria (Reeves et al., 2005) on a group of CFS patients and patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who do not have CFS.
There is very little new data if one has read:
Jason, LA, Najar N, Porter N, Reh C. Evaluating the Centers for...
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Another paper using the (so-called) empiric criteria for CFS has been published:
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The economic impact of chronic fatigue syndrome in Georgia: direct and indirect costs.
Lin JM, Resch SC, Brimmer DJ, Johnson A, Kennedy S, Burstein N, Simon CJ.
Cost Eff Resour Alloc. 2011 Jan 21;9(1):1. [Epub ahead of print]
http://www.resource-allocation.com/content/9/1/1
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In table 1 (last line), one can see that 71% of the CFS cases (empiric criteria) worked in paid employment in the last four weeks.
This would be a very high figure compared to most if not all other CFS studies (which generally have used the Fukuda criteria).
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PANDORA and 10 other patient organizations has set up this project which seeks to change the direction of the CDC's ME/CFS research: http://health.change.org/petitions/view/tell_cdc_to_change_their_mecfs_research
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Kate Benson of Atlanta Unfiltered has written a piece about the appointment of Dr. Elizabeth Unger as the new head of the CDC's CFS program. It's at: http://bit.ly/dI95r6 i.e.http://www.atlantaunfiltered.com/2010/12/21/cdc-insider-to-run-research-on-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/
It says:
Unger has defended the CDC’s continuing use of the so-called 2005 Empiric definition of CFS, which critics dismiss as overly broad and — since only the CDC uses it — nearly useless.
It quotes, Dr. Fred Friedberg, President of the IACFS/ME:
Extramural researchers worldwide continue to criticize the CDC’s beleaguered program. “If the new permanent chief continues with the 1) empiric definition; 2) an emphasis on behavioral studies; and 3) ignores input from external scientists and other professionals, then our opposition to the program will continue,” Friedberg said Monday.
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