EN>DE Myalgic encephalomyelitis

[Guest guest]

Hello all

A friend has passed on this submission (below) to the British Medical

Journal Online. The issue of myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue

syndrome is fraught with nomenclature arguments, confusion over the nature

and aetiology of the disease / condition and the somatisation lobby's

denial of the existence of an organic basis. However the discussion seems

largely confined to the English-speaking world, Belgium and Holland. This

letter in response to the latest spat in the BMJ suggests that Germans do

not recognise the condition as such.

Can any German colleague comment on the statement " There seems to be no

german translation for " Myalgic encephalomyelitis " " and point to any German

references?

Any comments appreciated

All the best

Owen

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/eletters/329/7472/928#80740

Joerg Wiesenfeldt,

Registrar Dept of Neurology

St.beth Krankenhaus D54516

Wittlich Germany

Continental Ignorance

There seems to be no ME/CFS and no related charity in Germany. While being

aware of postviral fatigue, I never met any case of unprovoked non-

psychiatric chronic fatigue in my clinic. There seems to be no german

translation for " Myalgic encephalomyelitis " . How do you classify it in

ICD -10 ? Is it a physiological state ? immune-(in)-activation ?something

like migraine or epilepsy ? a psychiatric illness ? or, as " ME " suggests

something like " MS " ?

Sincerely Yours,

Joerg Wiesenfeldt

Competing interests: None declared

Owen Beith

Translations - FR/SP/PT to EN

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[Guest guest]

Hi Owen,

just a quick and dirty note: this

http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/WWW/AWMF/ll/053-002.htm

is pretty good reference (official guideline of the Association of the

Scientific German Medical Societies AWMF) which has this interesting

quote at the end:

Die Vielzahl von diagnostischen Begriffen, die beim Symptom Müdigkeit

benutzt werden, ist verblüffend. Der " niedrige Blutdruck " wird in

angelsächsischen Ländern als " German Disease " belächelt. Dort ist die

" Myalgic Encephalomyelitis " (ME) als Begriff jedem informierten Laien

bekannt. In reich wird oft eine " Asthenie " diagnostiziert,

während in Spanien noch die " Lipotimia " dazu kommt.

This seems to support your friends contention (I would know about it

if it hit me with a two by four, being " just " a blood and guts surgeon).

This guideline also has any number of relevant references.

HTH

Dieter