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With CFIDS, behavioral therapy often adds insult to injury.

Article Excerpt
It was a decade after Pat Fero exhibited initial symptoms of chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS) before the government launched its first major study of the illness. Another decade passed before the media took much of an interest. Unfortunately, according to Fero, the attention that has followed addresses this most complex of illnesses in the most simplistic of terms, too often concluding that CFIDS can be cured through exercise and positive thinking. That attitude prevails today even among many clinicians and scientists, further diminishing the chances of both the disease getting adequate research funding and the people who have it--most of them women--getting informed medical care.

CFIDS, which the government calls chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), is a debilitating disease marked by symptoms including extreme physical and mental fatigue, headaches, sleep disorders, severe concentration difficulties, muscle pain and more. Estimates vary as to its prevalence. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says as many as 500,000 people in the U.S. have a "CFS-like condition." In a 1999 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers at DePaul University estimated its incidence at 422 per 100,000 people, or up to 800,000 people nationwide. (1) But even that number may be low, says Fero, today executive director...

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