September 25, 2011
Day Four Dispatch from the IACFS/ME Biennial International Conference:
Translating Evidence into Practice
September 22-25, 2011
Delta Ottawa City Centre Hotel, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
This conference is organized by the International Assocation of
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (IACFS/ME) and
hosted by the National ME/FM Action Network.
The conference concluded a few minutes ago with a summary speech by
Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D. (Simcox-Higby Professor of Medicine, Harvard
Medical School, Boston, MA), who praised the diversity and excellence
of the research studies that were presented. He observed that "There
was a lot more interest globally than there had been at this meeting
two years ago. (Earlier in his speech, he noted an overall upward
trend of CFS/ME awareness amongst physicians and the general public
since the IACFS/ME began its biennial conferences 20 years ago.)
The day kicked off with a session on research developments in genomics
and genetics. One of many notable presentations in this session was by
Lea Steele, Ph.D (Director, Baylor Complex Illness Research
Initiative, Waco, TX), who presented a paper entitled Gene-Exposure
Interactions in The Etiology of Gulf War Illness: Evidence of
Increased Vulnerability to Neurotoxiants in Identifiable Veteran
Subgroups.
Next up was a session on advances in brain and neuroendocrine
functioning, including a talk on decreased basal ganglia activation in
CFS subjects by Andrew Miller, M.D. (Director, Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta,
GA).
After lunch, IACFS/ME President Fred Friedberg, Ph.D (Research
Associate Professor, Stonybrook University, Stony Brook, NY) chaired a
discussion and update on the organization's efforts to create a
clinical practice primer for general practice physicians to facilitate
the diagnosis and treatment of CFS/ME patients. "Our primary goal,"
Dr. Friedberg said, "is to put out something that physicians would
want to read." The primer, on the other hand, may also be helpful to
patients who believe they may have CFS/ME.
Patients, Dr. Friedberg added, "have to be very focussed in what
(they) bring to the doctor." With the primer, "we're trying to teach
the doctors (about CFS/ME). But as a matter of fact the patient also
has to know how to handle the doctor" in order to get meaningful
results."
Primer committee member Alan Gurwitt, M.D. (Faculty, Boston
Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Boston, MA), said "one of our
struggles is to find knowledgeable physicians" to refer to CFS/ME
patients. "We are only now emerging from a dark cloud, and that dark
cloud is (the notion that CFS/ME) is a psychological condition." Part
of the problem, he said, is that physicians have largely failed to
differentiate secondary psychological symptoms (where they exist) from
the primary physical symptoms associated with CFS/ME. "It has
contaminated and confused the literature in a harmful way."
For further information on the conference, including the agendas,
please visit: http://www.iacfsme.org/.
For further information on the National ME/FM Action Network, please
visit: http://www.mefmaction.com/
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like
contact information for any of the conference speakers.
James Deagle, Editor-In-Chief,
The Journey: Life & Living with ME/CFS and FMS
A publication of the National ME/FM Action Network
mefm.jamesdeagle@yahoo.com
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