I don't think this one has been posted. Dr. Klimas discusses her advances with Gulf War Illness and how she was able to use ME/CFS as a comparison model. She shows some great slides and discusses the direction she would like to proceed in for possible future clinical trials. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEsPWuNNMuU
She has two summary slides at the end. These are quite interesting. (The rest is, too ) They are planning a phase 1 trial on ME, but still need the funding. They want to apply to NIH for the phase 2 funding after that. They are transporting knowledge about GWI (from in silico an animal models) to ME.
You watch this presentation and then think about all the nonsense that UK psychiatrists are hypothesizing about ME/CFS... Oh my. Why is psychiatry stuck in the 19th century?
Interesting concept of the "trigger." You could see this happening with some kind of infection coincident with a period of high stress (which pretty much describes my onset). Also, perhaps getting a bad infection during a time of stress makes it more likely that it will proceed to some kind of mild neuro-inflammation; so the two things may come together more often than merely by chance. Decades ago, about a month after onset, my neurologist suspected I'd gone through a mild encephalitis (based on my spinal tap). I've sometimes suspected that the dubious link between ME/CFS and "type A personality / high achievers" might be that such people may tend to jump back into high stress activity too quickly following some kind of viral infection.
I wouldn't underestimate pressure from the job. Many people lose their job if they allow themselves to be on sick leave. Lesser reasons are enough to drive people to work although sick - e.g. what might the boss or the colleagues think, I have so much work to do, there's a deadline. It's not always about choices. Real life today is (and maybe always was?) pure stress, this is the normal setting for most people.
Well, for me, what you say did figure into my returning to work too quickly. I was trying to break into an industry via a job where I could easily be replaced and where being there every day was critical (it also didn't pay sick time, but that was not really the issue for me). It wasn't a matter of being a workaholic. It was more that I felt young and indestructible and I assumed that I didn't need to be 100% to go back to work. I'd gotten away with it before - - but I'd never been so run down prior to getting the flu before.
Exactly. Same here. But in fact, what came on top of my view "no problem to behave normal with an infection", I felt it was expected from me to behave like that. I was new in the company. It went like "It's your choice" - a long glance. This type A stuff is crap in my opinion. I'm definitely not type A by the way. But, which is quite normal in humanity, there are several "bondages" which force you to become a bit like "Type A", no matter if you like it or not.
I caught the viral infection during a career transition, it was somewhat stressful but the viral infection prevented me from working for 8 months, so I stayed home and took very good care of myself. I was able to return to work after 8 months, I felt refreshed and 95% improved. I felt recovered until the 3 week mark when my sleep became disrupted (feeling wired up) and started walking like a drunk on my 15 minute walk to work. I went downhill very quickly after that and became disabled. It wasn't during a stressful period.
do you think the so called 'experts' in the UK ever watch/read any of this(?) stupid question; I doubt they would understand it anyway One of the last slides: I'm not sure why the reference to CBT is there though?
