Chronic Fatigue and its Syndromes [Hardcover]

Simon Wessely (Author), Matthew Hotopf (Author), Michael Sharpe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 1998

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has been the subject of intense media debate over recent years. Such interest has been partially due to the scarcity of professional and scientific explorations of the topic - what is it, and what causes it? One school of thought argues that there is no medical basis to chronic fatigue and hence any such investigation is fruitless. An alternative view is that we should look at CFS purely as a physical problem, and that to attempt any psychological perspective is to trivialise the illness in the eyes of the sufferers. Chronic fatigue and its syndromes presents a comprehensive review of the problem of chronic fatigue, mixing medical, psychological, social, and historical perspectives. The book examines the historical origins of CFS, considering the epidemiology, and the various aetiological theories for the condition - viral, immunological, psychological, psychiatric, and neurological. The book concludes with a clinical section discussing the assessment and treatment of CFS. Throughout, the authors argue that chronic fatigue and its various syndromes cannot easily be pigeon holed into physical or psychological categories, and that the ambiguous nature of the illness actually provides us with a valuable chance to explore contemporary attitudes to sickness and health, one not offered by better defined or classified disorders.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is a unique addition to the psychiatric literature because of its exhaustive literature review of fatigue, as well as its multi-faceted approach to etiology."--Doody's Journal

"In Chronic Fatigue and Its Syndromes, three distinguished British scientists tackle this topic in its full physiological, phychological, and cultural complexity. . . . The writing is highly technical, yet achieves elegance through tight organization, clarity, and precision. Both lay and professional readers can easily read the text cover to cover or sonsult it as a quick reference on specific topics." The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

"This book is an indispensable reference for physicians confronted with patients presenting combinations of the symptoms described and already informed by other sources of their "diagnosis". . . . This sensible and sober book, if minded, offers authoritative data, cogent interpretation, and ammunition to help end an unnecessary epidemic."JAMA

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Simon Wessely is at King's College School of Medicine, London. Matthew Hotopf is at Institute of Psychiatry, London. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 440 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192621815
• ISBN-13: 978-0192621818
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,430,780 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Misleading CFS research by Wessley, June 28, 2004

By 

"dmkool" (Bristol, RI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chronic Fatigue and Its Syndromes (Paperback)

In doing some research on CFS I ran across some information that counters assertions made by Wessely, et al.

From the Handbook on Human Performance, in the chapter on CFS and performance where it cites the results of the Sussex and Glasgow studies:

"There was clear evidence of slower motor performance, increased visual sensitivity, and memory defects in the CFS group.";

"It should be noted that CFS cannot be explained either directly or in terms of psychiatric disorder nor in terms of a psychological reaction to physical disease.";

"Results showed that none of the performance impairments could be attributed to psychopathology.";

"The CFS subjects were slower on a motor task, and performed attention tasks, logical reasoning, and semantic memory tasks more slowly and less accurately. These effects were obtained on both occasions which shows that the performance impairments associated with CFS are reliable over time.";

"These results confirm the general view obtained from the Sussex and Glasgow studies and show that the performance impairments observed in CFS generalize to different populations and may be detected using different methodologies."

From Dr. Bell's book, The Dr's Gude to CFS":

"CFS by design resembles psychiatric diagnoses more than traditionally defined medical disorders because it represents descriptive phemomenology" (Krupp). That is to say, a psychiatric diagnosis is suggested whenever description replaces technological measurements.";

"In the past, physicians have assumed that the fatigue of CFIDS is related to depression, and one characteristic of the fatigue of depression is that it improves with exercise. Thus physicans may have been recommending that patients take a brisk walk around the block every day or maybe take up jogging. Patients with primary depression may do well with this regimen, but patients with CFIDS stare at their physicians with a look of disbelief. Many try it only to find that it worsens their symptoms. To the patient, the symptom worsening confirms two things: 1.) that the physician has absolutely no idea of what he or she is talking about, and 2.) that the illness is not primary depression.";

"There is a simple way to prove that CFIDS is not somatization. With somatization, there may be numerous variable symptoms, but they are random. In CFIDS, the symptoms are not random, they form a specific pattern."

Wessley has a distinct bias which is apparently not shared by most of the top CFS docs and researchers. Maybe that is why he fudges his title.... rather rather than just using CFS in the title.

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Travesty, September 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Chronic Fatigue and its Syndromes (Hardcover)

Dr. David Bell estimates that idiopathic chronic fatigue affects 25% of the population. Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome, a disease with clearly defined parameters and a devastating prognosis, is an entirely different thing. Like everyone else, Wessely has just turned blurred language into science, pretending to know something about a conditions which, most researchers now think, causes as much neurological impairment as AIDS dementia, greater functional severity than cancer or severe heart disease, and other horrible symptoms. I am nearly bedridden, and have been for seven years. Before that I was an athlete and scholar. I am sick of dealing with medical abuse, misogyny, and neglect around my illness. Never in the history of medicine has "guilty until proven innocent" been thrust so continuously on innocent victims of a horrible illness.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Misguided and blinkered science, August 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Chronic Fatigue and its Syndromes (Hardcover)

On the plus side, this book is indeed scholarly and highly referenced. On the down side, it is not WELL researched and fails dismally to meet some of the cardinal rules of good science: namely a process of stultifying rigour.

In fact it is poor, blinkered science. It represents (however meticulously) only one half of the complex truth that is CFS. I notice that one reviewer described as in the "dark ages". I would say that's not far off the mark. The scientific standing of CFS has moved on light years since DR Wessley and Prof. Weatherall (the reviewer who gave Dr Wessley's book high marks,) formulated their punitive theories. Anyone who does not believe that a large component of CFS is psychological, or can be very much helped by cognitive and behaviour therapies, would do very much better to look elsewhere for enlightened and scientific advice on how to approach recovery.

Along those lines I highly recommend Teitelbaum's book called Fatigued to Fantastic, and Burton Goldberg's book on CFS. Highly scientific, though concerned only with the neurological causes of CFS is Jay Goldstein's work. All of these books and many more are available from Amazon.

Finally a request to Dr Wessley (and Prof Weatherall). Please stop confusing fatigue syndromes with Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome. They are not the same thing and to make them into a single scientific enquiry is a nonsense.