CFS:
An evaluation of exclusionary medical/psychiatric conditions in the
definition of chronic fatigue syndrome.
Jones JF, Lin JM, Maloney EM, Boneva RS, Nater UM, Unger ER, Reeves WC.
BMC Med. 2009 Oct 12;7(1):57. http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/7/57
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If one goes to Table 6, and look at the "No" column (as in "no exclusionary
conditions") one can see the characteristics of the patients the definition
is selecting.
One that stands out to me is SF-36 "Role emotional" 30.93 (SD: 39.03).
This is a much worse score that scores for role emotional in CFS patients
generally.
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The SF-36 "Role emotional" subscale has three questions:
(I don't think one can get underlining in plain text so I'll put **'s around
the bits underlined on each questionnaire:
6. During the **past 4 weeks**, have you had any of the following problems
with your work or other regular daily activities **as a result of any
emotional problems** (such as feeling depressed or anxious)?
(circle one on each line)
a. Cut down on the amount of time you spent on work or other activities
Yes No
b. Accomplished less than you would like deleted
Yes No
c. Didn't do work or other activities as carefully as usual deleted
Yes No
-----------
Remember that this asks about impairments "**as a result of any emotional
problems**" (other questions ask about impairments but in other ways).
If you answer Yes to two of these three questions, you would score 33.
So an average of 30.93 means people with the CFS (empirical criteria) answer
"Yes" to more than 2 out of these 3 questions on average.
Tom Kindlon
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