Product Description
Eighty of the world's leading M.E./CFS authorities havecontributed their knowledge to produce a 750-page encyclopedia on thedisease process that may be one of the biggest single causes ofchronic illness in the world today. Known in the United States asChronic Fatigue Syndrome and in Great Britain both as MyalgicEncephalomyelitis and Post-Viral Fatigue Syndrome, M.E./CFS hasprovoked a chronic disabling illness in an estimated 1,000,000 personsin North America and Europe.

This book provides, in one superb 75-chapter source, an up-to-date,comprehensive account of current knowledge concerning the history,epidemiology, children with M.E., investigation, virology, immunology,muscle pathology, host response, food intolerance, brain mapping,neurophysiology, neuropsychology, psychiatry, sleep dysfunction,fibromyalgia syndrome, treatment and management.

This is an essential reference book for medical, government and publiclibrary reference rooms. This text is a unique vehicle forresearchers, physicians and other health education and governmentofficials, and is easily understandable by the general publicinterested in M.E./CFS.

All funds from this text will be used both to promote research and toassist in greater understanding of M.E./CFS. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

The Clinical and Scientific Basis of Myalgic Encephalmyelitis -- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
This book was an extensive compilation of the clinical work and research efforts of a great number of qualilfied medical doctors, from not only America but from around the world as well. From one who has suffered the effects of ME/CFS for a number of years...with time out for good behavior..I was dumbfounded that so much work and intense effort has been put in to the study and depth that was shown in this work.
It is very readable and well organized.The extensive index also helped with the specific information in question.I recommend it for medical personnel so that the patients who complain of ME/CFS will have a chance to make headway under your watch.

This book will help to take us out of the dark ages of marginalizing the ME/CFS sufferers and in to the realm of considering their needs and motivating adequate
care and healing modes.

Excellent information from Dr. Byron Hyde
The information by Dr. Hyde in this book is essential to understanding what ME is.He has an excellent track record in the area of ME research, can't recommend his writings enough!

A vital resource for patients and doctors!
When you or someone you love is suddenly stricken with a serious illness, you want an experienced, knowledgeable doctor to be able to diagnose and treat you efficiently and with sympathy.Unfortunately this isn't always possible, and victims of poorly understood illness often have to fight for recognition and appropriate treatment.The only way to avoid getting lost in the healthcare system or, even worse, to find yourself participating in prescribed treatment programs that may do more harm than good, is to arm yourself with as much knowledge as you can.

The Nightingale Foundation is one of the few bodies dedicated to researching M.E. and disseminating useful information about the disease.It is also one of the few organisations to advocate the distinction between Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and what is commonly called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - a crucial qualification."The Clinical and Scientific Basis of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis--Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" is an unparalleled resource for patients and clinicians trying to understand this baffling illness.The Nightingale Foundation's ground-breaking definition of M.E. was drafted to quickly diagnose and effectively treat M.E. and also to "give comfort to M.E. patients everywhere."It seems like a large, intimidating reference book, but I can personally vouch for the comfort its been to me throughout my illness.Tested scientific facts are more reassuring than anything when you're ill and feel like you've been abandoned by the medical profession.

An essential M.E. textbook for patient and doctor alike
An excellent resource from Dr Byron Hyde MD (editor).

This book is the one and only M.E. textbook. This book is essential reading for anyone with M.E., or an interest in M.E. Buy this book!!!

Not all of the many chapters in this book are worthwhile or still current, BUT this book is well worth the price and the 5 stars even if only for the five or six chapters written by Dr Hyde, unarguably the world's leading M.E. expert.

I'd also highly recommend you check out Dr Hyde's more recent writings. I cannot recommend them highly enough.

The clinical and scientific basis of Myalgic Encephalitis
Unbelievably insightfull to those who have or are suffering
from this devestating disease process .Every treating physician
should have this in there office.In my personal observations
with some people I have met and also myself and my wife it is
definetly and as a matter of medical fact a potential lifesaver.
The fact that this author Dr. Byron Hyde has went to extreme
lenghts to study research and organise the world symposium
on this to gather varied medical research and facts from all

these brilliant minds tells me that this man deserves at the
very least a medal of Honour but rather the Nobel Peace Prize
for devoting at least 25 years of his life to studying and
caring enough to try and find the cause and cure of so much
human suffering that exists in our world. My sincerest regards...
P.S. I passed on the book to another fellow sufferer and never
really got the chance to read very much but my doctor has one now. ... Read more

Product Description
The Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter, Canada. An examination of the testimonials of four teenage sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome, offering a survival guide for patients and parents and insight for health care professionals. Hardcover, softcover also available. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Exposes the War on Science
Details the very underreported war on science by a small cadre of British psychiatrists.Simon Wessely has made a cottage industry of kicking the disabled when they're down including military veterans. Nicely exposes this emperor of charlatans' complete lack of clothes.Also see Prof. Malcolm Hooper's excellent works, posted free on the internet. ... Read more

Product Description
An explanation of the clinical nature of M.E. describing the virological and other tests and answering the basic questions which sufferers and doctors unacquainted with the disease will ask. The book also describes conventional and alternative treatments and gives views on their efficacy. ... Read more

Product Description
Covers varied organ pathology in a wide range of syndromes induced by viral infection and toxin exposure. Discusses such lethal problems as cardiomyopathy, liver failure, pancreatic cancer, brain tumors, and renal disease. Includes photographs, photomicrographs, charts, EKGs, X rays, and graphic depictions of other medical test results. Hardcover, softcover available. ... Read more

Product Description
An important medical milestone for anyone connected with ME/CFS!

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Clinical Working Case Definition, Diagnostic and Treatment Protocols includes a clinical definition (clinical diagnostic criteria) for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The clinical case definition was developed by an expert medical consensus panel of treating physicians, teaching faculty and world leaders in the research of ME/CFS. An expert subcommittee of Health Canada established the Terms of Reference for the consensus panel. The definition more adequately reflects the complexity of symptoms of a given patient’s pathogenesis and should establish ME/CFS as a distinct medical entity and help distinguish it from overlapping medical conditions in the absence of a definitive laboratory test.

“The clinical definition will enable clinicians to make an early diagnosis which may assist in lessening the impact of ME/CFS in some patients,” said Dr. Bruce M. Carruthers, lead author of the definition. “It will reduce the expensive problem of patients being sent to many specialists before being diagnosed and will allow patients to receive appropriate treatments in a timely fashion.”

The panel's clinical case definition determines that more of the prominent symptoms are compulsory and symptoms that share a common region of pathogenesis are grouped together for clarity. In addition to severe prolonged fatigue, the definition includes the hallmark symptoms of post-exertional malaise and/or fatigue, sleep dysfunction, pain, two or more of the given neurological/cognitive manifestations, and at least one of the given symptoms from two of the categories of autonomic, neuroendocrine, and immune manifestations. Diagnostic exclusions and common co-morbid entities are also given.

The special issue of the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome also includes a discussion of prominent symptoms, clinical practice diagnostic and treatment guidelines based on the best available research evidence, and an overview of available research on ME/CFS.

The expert panel of 11 physicians—who have diagnosed and/or treated more than 20,000 ME/CFS patients between them—has developed a clinical case definition that provides a flexible conceptual framework based on the characteristic patterns of symptom clusters, which reflect specific areas of pathogenesis. The expert subcommittee of Health Canada selected the expert consensus panel.

Authors include:

• Dr. Bruce M. Carruthers, lead author of the consensus document; co-author of the draft of the original version of the ME/CFS clinical definition, diagnostic and treatment protocols document; internal medicine, Galiano, British Columbia.
• Dr. Anil Kumar Jain, co-author of the draft the original version of the ME/CFS consensus document, affiliate of Ottawa Hospital, Ontario.
• Dr. Kenny L. De Meirleir, Professor Physiology and Medicine, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium; ME/CFS researcher and clinician; organizer of the World Congress on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Related Disorders; a board member of the American Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; and co-editor of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Critical Reviews and Clinical Advances (Haworth)
• Dr. Daniel L. Peterson, affiliate of the Sierra Internal Medicine Associates in Incline Village, Nevada; ME/CFS researcher and clinician; a board member of the American Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; and member of the International Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study Group
• Dr. Nancy G. Klimas, Clinical Professor of Medicine in Microbiology/Immunology/Allergy and Psychology, University of Miami School of Medicine; ME/CFS researcher and clinician; a board member of the American Association for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; and member of the federal CFS Coordinating Committee
• Dr. A. Martin Lerner, staff physician at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan; Clinical professor and former chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Wayne State University's School of Medicine; and ME/CFS researcher and clinician
• Dr. Alison C. Bested, haematological pathologist; former head of the Division of Haematology and Immunology at the Toronto East General and Orthopaedic Hospital; affiliate of the Environmental Health Clinic and Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario; ME/CFS researcher and clinician
• Dr. Pierre Flor-Henry, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Alberta; Clinical Director of General Psychiatry and Director of the Clinical Diagnostic and Research Centre, both based at Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; ME/CFS brain researcher
• Dr. Pradip Joshi, internal medicine, Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John's, Canada
• Dr. A. C. Peter Powles, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Health Science, McMasters University, Hamilton; Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto; Chief of Medicine and Sleep Disorders Consultant, St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto; Sleep Disorder Consultant at the Sleep Disorder Clinic at St. Joseph's Healthcare, Hamilton, and Central West Sleep Affiliation, Paris, Ontario
• Dr. Jeffrey A. Sherkey, family medicine, affiliate of the University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario; and diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome nearly 10 years ago
• Marjorie I. van de Sande, Consensus Coordinator; and Director of Education for the National ME/FM Action Network, Canada

Customer Reviews (2)

The Definitive Document on ME/CFIDS
This is the most authoritative Definition and Treatment Guidelines by far for ME/CFIDS.Explains with piercing clarity this common and extremely disabling neuro-endocrine immune disease.

Clinical definition of an organic brain disease
This edition contains the full 2003 Canadian clinical definition for this ICD-10 G93.3 brain disease developed by the biomedical researchers and clinicians who have seen and treated the organic symptoms of thousands of patients accurately diagnosed with this disease. Post exertional exhaustion unrelieved by rest (not tiredness) is but one symptom of many signs and symptoms required to diagnose this complex disease. Medically relevant signs (objective ways doctors use to test symptoms)are noted. A good book to help your physician understand this organic disease. Ask your local library to purchase it. Remember what all good clinicians know: A syndrome may contain a symptom, but a symptom is never a syndrome. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is a journal article from The Arts in Psychotherapy, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
This paper explores the narratives of three women who had lived with severe chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) for many years, and who engaged in art-making as a leisure activity rather than for psychotherapy. Three distinct narratives about the role of art-making in CFS/ME were inferred. One participant represented art as a way of filling time rather than having further psychological significance. In her narrative, art provided satisfaction but also functioned as a witness to time and opportunity that had been lost to an unchanging illness. The second participant narrated both illness and art-making as intertwined journeys towards a more able and useful self. Her narrative had features of the quest described in previous typologies. The third participant also provided a quest narrative, but her struggle focused inwards on understanding her feelings about her illness and its effects on her life. The analytic focus on narrative revealed the distinctive constructions of illness and art-making that are usually submerged when qualitative analysis focuses on themes common to groups of participants. These narratives of art-making in CFS/ME have relevance to understanding the multi-faceted therapeutic benefits of art. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
This digital document is a journal article from Social Science & Medicine, published by Elsevier in 2006. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Chronic illness is disruptive, threatening people's sense of identity and taken for granted assumptions. Transformations in values, expectations and life priorities are likely to be experienced and in order to regain a coherent sense of self, people must interpret their experiences. People with difficult to diagnose illnesses can find themselves living with greater uncertainty and stigma. This paper explores how people with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) describe and interpret their illness experience by applying Arthur Frank's narrative typologies to analyse interviews with 17 British people with CFS/ME. The analysis proposes that a trajectory of narrative typologies is experienced, starting with a restitution narrative, moving to a chaos narrative and, for most, back to a restitution narrative and on to a quest narrative. The presentation of narrative types put forward by people living with CFS/ME differ to those presented by people who are HIV positive and have been treated for breast cancer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Not worth the money whatsoever
This is a research paper with very little beyond references to other people's work. If you are a scholar of medical narrative, you might find it somewhat interesting. But again, since all it really does is refer to other people's research, it is definitely not worth $7.95. It should be free and up on wikipedia or something. I'm very disappointed in Amazon for selling something so useless and not giving me the option to return it. ... Read more

Product Description
THE book on myalgic encephalomyelits, chronic fatigue and missed diagnosis. Byron Hyde is one of the world's most respected experts in clinical medicine. He has worked alongside experts in neurology at Harvard including Dr. Charles Poser and Prof. Frank Duffy. He is also one of the only physicians in the world to have visited and examined patients from all the major ME epidemics. With a foreword by Prof. Malcolm Hooper. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Essential reading for those with undiagnosed chronic fatigue and/or pain
If you have undiagnosed chronic pain and/or fatigue, you must read this book. You will then understand why the medical system is not doing a very good job of dealing with your illness. The book also provides many clues about what might be wrong. The discouraging thing is that without more doctors and researchers dedicated to this sort of diagnosis, it's very difficult for people to gain access to somebody who can help them. Individuals can try to figure it out themselves and pay privately for extra tests, but it is extensive systematic investigation by a medical expert that is necessary and appropriate. It would save our society money in the long run to invest in this type of research and diagnosis, but nobody is taking the responsibility to improve the situation. If one doctor (the author) can diagnosis 70% of the mystery cases that come to him, just think how much could be done if more doctors had the training and experience and could take the time to actually find the CAUSES of pain and fatigue.

Must read info from Dr. Hyde
Dr. Hyde has a proven history of being the go-to doctor for information regarding ME.ME is not a mystery illness with vague symptoms and there ARE definitive diagnostic tests that can and do reliably and accurately diagnose ME patients.Anyone - patient, doctor or care taker - who wants to know the truth about the organic neurological illness ME should read this book.

Essential reading for doctors and patients alike
This book is essential reading for doctors and patients alike, and those interested in M.E. as well as those interested in 'CFS' or that have been misdiagnosed as 'CFS.'

(As this book explains, there is no such distinct disease as 'CFS' - and every diagnosis of 'CFS' is a MISdiagnosis.)

The Nightingale Definition of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis paper in particular cannot be recommended highly enough.

Finally this is a modern and TESTABLE definition of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, created by the world's leading and most experienced M.E. expert, Dr Byron Hyde. This is NOT a redefinition of CFS but is instead a pure M.E. definition.

It draws on the long history of M.E., collates the evidence from each of the world's leading M.E. experts (past and present) and combines this with details of the most modern medical tests. This definition also rightly gives no importance at all to the bogus notion of mere `fatigue' having any importance in the diagnosis/definition - unlike each of the `CFS' definitions, including unfortunately the Canadian `ME/CFS' definition which just mixes in a few M.E. facts with what is still primarily a `CFS' redefinition.

Dr Hyde explains that:

"I believe it essential to define clearly Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, returning the definition to its clinical and historic roots and complementing this information with the certitude of modern scientific testing. That is what the Nightingale definition of M.E. sets out to do. But let me first ask you a very important question.

What is the purpose of any medical definition? What is the purpose of any disease definition if it is not to allow the physician to rapidly and accurately diagnose a specific illness in order to attempt to effectively treat the patient before the illness becomes chronic or to call in the appropriate specialists? Our definition solves this problem."

"There is a third purpose for any disease definition. That is to clearly define the disease so that various physicians and researchers can clearly understand that they are talking about the same illness spectrum and so launch research into what will become an effective treatment. Our definition gives a clear baseline for investigation.

The Nightingale definition is based upon the following two criteria: (a) The excellent scientific and clinical work of respected physicians and scientists who investigated the various M.E. epidemics. (b) The results of modern scientific testing techniques and the knowledge accruing from examining thousands of M.E. patients using these and more historical techniques. The proposed M.E. definition is designed to improve early diagnosis and treatment for the tens of thousands of patients stricken with M.E. It is not a new definition of CFS nor should it be conceived as a rewording of any previous CFS definition.

The definition is set out in such a fashion as to enable the physician to make a bedside or office clinical diagnosis and then to scientifically test the hypothesis. This will allow the physician an early diagnostic understanding of this complex illness and a scientific and technological method to investigate and confirm the diagnosis. It is well known by all serious physicians that in order to assist any patient in a partial or full recovery the illness must be (a) prevented from occurring by either immunization or understanding and avoiding the causes, (b) or diagnosed and treated immediately following onset. The Nightingale Definition assists the physician both in diagnosis and early treatment.

What follows is the primary M.E. definition for adults. I believe it essential to define clearly Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. That is what the Nightingale definition of M.E. sets out to do........

To various degrees many if not all of the above historic findings have been observed and discussed by Doctors Alexander Gilliam, Bjorn Sigurdsson, Alberto Marinacci, Andrew Lachlan Wallis, A Melvin Ramsay (Elizabeth Dowsett), John Richardson, Elizabeth Bell, Alexis Shelokov, David C Poskanzer, W.H. Lyle, Sir E. Donald Acheson, Louis Leon-Sotomayor, J. Gordon Parish and many others."


'The complexities of diagnosis' is also very, very good overall and is also recommended.

Buy this book, and an extra copy for your doctor.

We need a hundred Dr Hyde's! Things are getting worse and worse for M.E. patients worldwide, sadly.

Jodi Bassett, severe M.E. patient and founder of the Hummingbirds' Foundation for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis ... Read more

Product Description
CFS/ME is a debilitating disorder which affects both physical and psychological functioning. It is also a poorly understood condition which was not widely accepted as a specific disorder until only a few years ago. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), in conjunction with other physical and medical therapies, is now generally accepted as the treatment of choice for people who are affected by CFS/ME. This book provides the perfect companion for patients to develop and apply new insights into overcoming some of their specific symptoms as well as coping with the syndrome, both during the course of their therapy and afterwards. It provides a helpful structure and framework for understanding CFS/ME and its effects as well as practical exercises to help address some of the symptoms that patients may experience. ... Read more

Product Description
This book charts the ways in which the ideas of a 19th Century neurologist became enshrined in the thinking of modern neuropsychiatry. It looks at how the diagnosis of hysteria and conversion disorder was revitalised by a group of like-minded physicians under the terms of "functional weakness" and "functional neurological deficit" in order to"develop constructive ways of talking with patients".Overton claims this approach has fundamentally failed and the often hilarious jibes he makes at some sectors of the medical profession only highlight further the need for doctors to listen to their patients. "Deserves to be part of the literary canon"- Angela Kennedy ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Highly recommended
Simon Overton is a fellow advocate that I communicate with regularly.

Simon was kind enough to ask me to write the forward for this book.

An excerpt from the forward text:

"Substantial medical evidence spanning many decades continues to be ignored by those in positions of power who are abusing that power to further their own vested interests. Once an idea takes root in the scientific community it is not reason but the ability to gather kudos and grab research funding that informs dominant thinking. These groups and individuals are helped immeasurably by the creation of bogus disease categories, categories such as 'Chronic Fatigue Syndrome' and other unscientific concepts such as somatisation disorder, functional weakness, conversion disorder, hysteria, and so on.

Despite an utter lack of scientific legitimacy and the enormous costs to the many patients involved and to the community at large, these massive medical frauds have continued in perpetuity almost entirely unchallenged by the world's media, human rights groups, and governments. It is a worldwide disgrace and one of the biggest scandals in the history of medicine.

How much more extreme do the suffering and abuse caused by these malign scams have to be? How many more very ill patients have to be denied even basic medical care? How many more hundreds of thousands of children and adults worldwide have to be left severely disabled or dead through inappropriate treatment?

Simon Overton is to be congratulated for creating such a timely, intelligent and compelling book on this important topic. More uncompromising educational efforts like this one must be produced if change is ever to occur. The fox has been left in charge of the hen house for far too long already. Knowledge is power.

May the day soon come when such books (and other advocacy projects) are no longer needed, and when patients can rely on something as simple as treatment based on legitimate scientific evidence and on the reality of their pathology - rather than being subjected to various self-serving and illogical pseudo-scientific `theories'. Such ideas are extremely unlikely to help any of the patient groups involved to regain their health."

I highly recommend this book. The chapter which deals with the case of Ean Proctor in particular is a must-read for anyone involved in this field of medicine.

Jodi Bassett, founder of the 'Hummingbirds' Foundation for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis' (HFME)

A triumphant expose of the belief systems that lie behind modern neurology:functional weakness and conversion disorder
"Science must begin with myths and with the criticism of
myths"- Karl Popper

Patients often present to doctors with illness for which there is no
obvious organic explanation despite investigation. Historically
medicine lacks a tradition of ignorance and has a tendency to suggest
explanations for illness and treat the patient accordingly, even when
these explanations and cures are bizarre and absurd. Examples in the
medical canon range from the leeches and bloodletting of the
Ancient Greeks to the lobotomy of pre 1970's neurosurgery. Illness
that is not easily explained can challenge the hegemony of medicine.
Patients and others can see the psychiatric referral that often follows
as a means of controlling this threat to the physician's authority, for
how after millennia of "progress" can medicine itself be deviant or
deficient? Perhaps as a result of this tradition some contemporary
thinkers in neuropsychiatry, (Manu, Sharpe, Wessely and others)
place the blame on the patient for their illness, or more specifically
the ideas held by a patient about their illness1. ... Read more