Chronic fatigue syndrome and the biopsychosocial model

I was pleased to see this article highlight the potential harms of graded exercise therapy (GET) and CBT for patients with myalgic encephalopathy (ME).¹ I myself was diagnosed with ME as a 20-year-old student in early 1984 by a consultant neurologist in Glasgow. My illness was triggered by Coxsackie B4 virus — there was an outbreak of Coxsackie in the West of Scotland at this time. Since my own diagnosis with this poorly understood illness, I have been baffled — and shocked — to see the criteria of ME diluted in the early 1990s and the consequent conflation with unexplained ‘chronic fatigue’. Moreover, the adoption of the biopsychosocial model of ‘ME/CFS’ has certainly not been beneficial to my own experience of illness. I am hopeful that, with the dedicated international biomedical researchers we now have, there will be effective therapies in my lifetime. There are many, many people who truly suffer with this dreadful illness.

• © British Journal of General Practice 2016