Here's the Proof

For some time now, a battle has been raging in the comments to this blog about my statement that AIDS was at first considered psychiatric, and certain parties' refusal to believe that.

Unfortunately, I can't computer-search the comments, so to avoid having to repeatedly retype the quotes on which I base that statement, I'm going to put it here in the main part of the blog, where I can easily find it when I need to repeat it again:

"The parallels in the history of the recognition of AIDS as a specific disease and the recognition of CFIDS are remarkable.  For years physicians and health care administrators said that no illness could explain [the symptoms].  BECAUSE PATIENTS WITH AIDS WERE DYING, IT WAS FINALLY AND SOMEWHAT RELUCTANTLY AGREED THAT THIS CONSTELLATION OF UNUSUAL SYMPTOMS AND EVENTS WAS NOT PSYCHOSOMATIC.  And with the discovery of the HIV virus, a theory could be put forward that explained these findings."

Dr. David S. Bell, Harvard educated, professor at Harvard Medical School
"The Doctor's Guide to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome", pp. 17-18. 

I have previously provided other quotes, from Osler's Web, in the comments sections.

However, like so many people, these commenters stubbornly refuse to accept any evidence that proves they are wrong, and continue to demand that I provide more and more quotes, while providing no evidence of their own to disprove my experts.

I welcome my other readers to provide any quotes they have on this subject.  If you're unwilling to have your name published, you can just e-mail me, and I'll post it under my own name.

MORE:

Katrina Berne, Ph.D. (Licensed Clinical Psychologist)

"Many diseases are labeled psychiatric or "stress" disorders until causal agents or illness markers are identified, at which time they graduate to the status of legitimized, genuine illness." p.124

"Before the causative agent of HIV disease was identified, the medical community was baffled by patients with such various disorders as Kaposi’s sarcoma, wasting syndrome, and PCP pneumonia, which were not initially recognized as presentations of the same underlying illness. The shift came only when a causative agent was identified..." p.138

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Other Invisible Illnesses: The comprehensive guide

 

Dan Peterson, M.D.

"It’s easy to publish a negative study in this disease... I could say ... ‘these people have a psychiatric disorder,’ and I promise you they would take that. My model for that is AIDS. ... When I was first in practice, when that disease was being disputed, it was the same kind of argument. It just happens that people with AIDS die, and so the scientific world was stuck addressing the issue. I swear, if AIDS weren’t a fatal disease, we would still be having the same argument about it." Osler’s Web, p. 504-505

 

Wells Goodrich, clinical professor of psychiatry, Georgetown University

"There was an obvious precedent for the mistreatment of CFS sufferers... ‘We know that the stage of medical confusion for AIDS lasted five years, from 1978 to 1983...’ Prior to 1983, however, AIDS victims suffered the from the same negligence to which CFS patients were now subjected." Osler’s Web, p. 585

 

Paul Cheney, MD, describing the bell curve of diagnosis

"In ‘82, ‘83, and ‘84 ... it would have looked the same for AIDS, because [in the absence of a diagnostic test] it took a while for those people to get diagnosed, too." Osler’s Web, p.142

 

Kimberly Kaye

http://www.sheknows.com/articles/health-and-wellness/conditions/803584-Chronic-fatigue-Yuppie-flu-or-dangerous-illness.htm

Like AIDS, MS and Lupus (all of which were attributed to hysteria or psychosomatic symptoms before research proved otherwise), CFIDS has had an uphill battle to fight. 

 

Neuropsychologist, Sheila Bastien, Ph.D.

"Many medical disorders present as psychological disturbances. Pancreatic cancer can cause visual hallucinations. Adrenal tumors will cause behavior that can seem psychotic. So you have to be very careful not to accept psychiatric diagnoses at face value." Osler’s Web, p.111

"Edward Shorter, a history professor, published a book on the subject, From Paralysis to Fatigue.... Thehistorian’s research citations bore the mark of a polemicist whose argument depends on the omission of the entire body of data that is contrary to his conclusion. ... Thoroughly enmeshed in a worldview wherein the medical profession stood unassailable, Shorter was blind to his own and to Straus’s vilification of CFS sufferers. [footnote] With its politicized science and forsaken victims, the CFS epidemic was ripe for Shorter’s exploitation. It was inconceivable, however, that in 1992 Shorter could have found a publisher for a similarly mean-spirited book about multiple sclerosis, lupus or AIDS – all disorders that medical experts had once characterized as dependent upon the victim’s emotional state." Hillary Johnson, Osler’s Web, p. 566

Lobbyist Tom Sheridan:

"I’m always surprised by the level of antagonism the opposition demonstrates, but I’ve never seen that level of vitriol, not even in AIDS." Osler’s Web, p. 588

"agency officials were reminded of the early dismissal of the AIDS epidemic." Hillary Johnson, Osler's Web, p.603

 

 

Medical experts to contact for more information if you don’t believe me, include:

Paul Cheney (The Cheney Clinic, North Carolina), Dan Peterson (Nevada), Jay Goldstein (California), Carol Jessop (California), Mark Loveless (Oregon Health Sciences University), Nancy Klimas (Nancy.Klimas@va.gov), Anthony Komaroff (www.Harvard.edu), David Bell (www.DavidSBell.com), Leonard Jason (LJASON@depaul.edu), Derek Enlander (Denlander@aol.com), Benjamin Natelson (www.umdnj.edu)  (website/e-mail given where I have it myself)

Failure to contact these doctors will simply prove that you are afraid to learn that I am right and you are wrong!