Neurometabolites in anterior cingulate cortex in CFS:magnetic resonance spectroscopy study @ 7 Tesla

And to those questioning the depression measure, I think you're all spot on. I'm not even sure if the concept of depression is useful. It is based on a really old idea that you can get pathologically sad and negative about the world, and that leads you to lose initiative and sort of give up. And they're all causally connected.

I think its likely to be more complicated than that - there's probably going to turn out to be a 'negative mood' subtype and a 'lack of initiative' subtype, and they might have quite different causes. But we just don't have the theoretical framework to sort it all out yet.

 

Agree. Depression isn't even a diagnosis.

 

Agreed. Lack of initiative/drive tends to travel with lack of pleasure/anhedonia (both underpinned by dopaminergic reward pathways), not necessarily low or depressed mood per se. In fact, mood can be normal or even elevated in such states.

 

I would like to set up a 'What is depression?' thread to avoid taking this one too far off topic but I'm not sure where to put it. We've often discussed the inappropriateness of depression questionnaires for ME (well you guys have, I've just read along) but I don't recall that we've ever considered the much more basic point of are the questionnaires even appropriate to measure depression. Like many, I've long thought that depression is an even bigger wastebasket diagnosis than CFS.

Right, I'm going to report myself to a mod to ask where to put my thread.

As you were.

 

As usual the questions tell you far more about whoever it was who designed the form than they are ever likely to tell you about the subject.

How many possible meanings (or uses) could "usual" have? I would say "answers on a postcard, please" but it would take more than a postcard.

 

We are having a think about the best option...

 

Hi, sorry for the delay. There is no completely natural fit but at the moment the best option we feel is probably Missed, Alternative or Co-existing Diagnoses>Neurological - but if anybody wants to put up a strong argument for somewhere else, we're more than prepared to listen.

 

We have a radical. I repeat, we have a radical.

 

Thanks, Andy, but that is specifically for MS. Maybe we need an 'Other' option in that section on the same level? I'm in no hurry, though. The worst that'll happen is I'll forget all about it.