ME/CFS Awareness Day

Today is ME/CFS Awareness Day.  Readers of the blog may know that Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is a crippling illness that has devastated the lives of about 1 million Americans, including many lawyers and law students, and some professors.  Although ME/CFS was first identified in the 1980s, it was brushed off for years as "yuppie flu."  The thousands of victims who were housebound and bedridden were often marginalized as malingerers or worse.  

Fortunately, understanding of the nature of ME/CFS has finally turned a corner, at least in the United States.  Reports from the National Institutes of Health and the Institute of Medicine (the latter chaired by law and medicine professor Ellen Clayton of Vanderbilt) have recognized that ME/CFS is a bio-medical illness that requires far greater research funding.  At Columbia, Drs. Ian Lipkin and Mady Hornig have launched a "Chronic Fatigue Initiative" that has already produced results that indicate a biomarker, which is the first step toward developing a medical treatment.

But all is not well.  In the United States, ME/CFS research still receives less funding than hayfever or male pattern baldness.  In the United Kingdom, the situation is even worse, as a coterie of psychiatrists continue to insist that ME/CFS victims are merely "deconditioned" as a result of irrational fear of exercise.

Nonetheless, progress is being made after decades of neglect.  Most importantly, at least in the short run, the stigma attached to ME/CFS is slowly being lifted.  Since I began blogging about the illness, I have heard from many lawyers, law students, and a few law professors who confided in me their continuing fear exposure, lest they be derided or discounted, but several have also told me that they plan to "go public."

There is no cure for ME/CFS, and none on the immediate horizon.  What victims need now, most of all, is simply respect -- which is why today is dedicated to ME/CFS awareness.

 

 

Comments

[Orin Kerr]

Thanks for the post, Steve.

[anon]

I don't often agree with Lubet, but on this issue, I do.