Tag: ME/CFS
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Rituximab
IV rituximab has been used to treat chronic fatigue syndrome. A large, well-designed new study shows it doesn't work.
Treating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Graded Exercise Therapy: How the PACE Trial Got It Wrong
The PACE trial found that cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise therapy were effective treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome and could produce recovery in 22% of patients. It seems they got it wrong.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease Speculcation
My wife and I are entering an age where our aches and pains are becoming a major ongoing topic of conversations. The pain of raising kids has transitioned into the pains of growing older. These aches and pains are, in the scheme of things, minor and intermittent. At work I get to see real suffering and it keeps my own in perspective....
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Rituximab Revisited
Three years ago I wrote about an experimental treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS): rituximab (brand name Rituxan). I was concerned that doctors who offered it, like Andreas Kogelnik, were jumping the gun by offering it before the evidence was in, and that they might be putting patients at risk. A correspondent who has been following the CFS forums asked me to...
IOM Recommends Replacing CFS with SEID
The Institute of Medicine has proposed replacing the terms chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis with systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID).
Rituximab for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Jumping the Gun
Now that the XMRV myth has been put to rest, patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) are no longer jumping the gun to demand anti-retroviral treatments. But they are jumping the gun in new ways, based on very preliminary data coming out of Norway. A correspondent in Norway wrote to tell me patients from Norway with myalgic encephalitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) are travelling...
XMRV Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Update
Sometimes science works the way it’s supposed to. Scientists make hypotheses, test them by gathering preliminary evidence, and then argue about the inevitable conflicting results. Eventually better and better evidence is gathered until a consensus is achieved. Actually, I think that is how science usually works, it’s just that most questions in science are narrow and technical and don’t command media or...
Followup: More Evidence against the XMRV Virus as a Cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
A mouse leukemia retrovirus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV retrovirus), has been under consideration as a possible cause of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS, and also prostate cancer). In a study published in Science in October 2009, Lombardi et al. found XMRV in 67% of CFS patients and 3.7% of controls. Several subsequent studies in the UK, the Netherlands, and the US...
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Lots of Speculation
Humans love to find patterns in the world. Sometimes patterns exist, sometimes they are imaginary. Sometimes you can see a pattern that may be interesting and ignore its significance. As a resident I used to say that anyone who smokes three packs of cigarettes a day has to be schizophrenic, it was meant more as a joke, when, in fact, it was...
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Retroviruses: Jumping the Gun
When I first heard that a retrovirus had been identified as a possible cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, I withheld judgment and awaited further developments. When I heard that two subsequent studies had failed to replicate the findings of the first, I assumed that the first had been a false alarm and would be disregarded. Not so. It’s a classic case of...