WIKIMEDIA, SEATTLE MUNICIPAL ARCHIVESChronic fatigue syndrome is a fairly apt description of what sufferers endure, but an Institute of Medicine (IOM) panel suggests a redefinition. Along with new diagnostic criteria, the experts offer a new name: systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID).
“This name captures a central characteristic of the disease: the fact that exertion of any sort—physical, cognitive, or emotional—can adversely affect patients in many organ systems and in many aspects of their lives,” the committee members, chaired by Ellen Wright Clayton of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, wrote in a summary of their report.
The new diagnostic criteria include an impairment in participating in normal activities for at least six months; unrefreshing sleep; “post-exertional malaise”; and cognitive impairments or a worsening of symptoms that can be relieved by lying down. Such specifics “will in the end get more people cared for and treated,” Peter Rowe, a committee member, pediatrician, and chronic-fatigue expert at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, told Nature News.
The changes are not universally welcomed ...
