Tymes Trust View 2011-01 07 June 2011 ====== TYMES TRUST SUBMISSION TO AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION (APA) ====== PLEASE ENTER OUR COMMENTS BELOW INTO YOUR REVIEW PROCESS We wish to express concern over your new classification of Complex Somatic Symptom Disorder. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has commonly been mistaken for a somataform disorder. There are concerns in the UK that it may now be allocated a place under the umbrella of Complex Somatic Symptom Disorders. In the UK the term Myalgic Encephalomyelitis has been used for half a century to define a potentially severe and chronic multi-system illness triggered commonly by the enterovirus family, of which a key symptom is post-exertional malaise. This name is still in use by the UK Government alongside CFS (as CFS/ME) and it received a categorisation from the WHO under neurological conditions many years ago, before the term CFS was invented. Enough confusion has already been caused by the unhelpful invention of the name Chronic Fatigue Syndrome under which ME then became trapped. Any possibility that classic ME, already subsumed under CFS, could be mistakenly classified by default as a Complex Somatic Symptom Disorder would be nothing short of disastrous. It would also be a scientific error of some magnitude which would surely be best avoided for your own sakes as much as that of the patients. We would be grateful to receive an acknowledgment of our submission. Best regards, Jane Colby FRSA Executive Director The Young ME Sufferers Trust Holder of The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service: The MBE for Volunteer Groups PO Box 4347, Stock, Essex, CM4 9TE www.tymestrust.org Tel: 0845 003 9002 ====== READ PREVIOUS VIEWS AT www.tymestrust.org ====== You are welcome to redistribute or reprint this document without seeking our permission provided: 1) you do not abbreviate, add to, or change the text in any way; 2) the authorship information is retained; and 3) www.tymestrust.org is credited as the source. Jane Colby is Executive Director of The Young ME Sufferers Trust. She was a Headteacher for nine years, a member of the government Chief Medical Officer's Working Group on CFS/ME and co-authored ME/CFS In UK Schools, the largest epidemiological study of ME to date. She is a member of the National Association of Educational Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants (now ASPECT), a life member of the National Association of Head Teachers and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Copyright (c) 2011 The Young ME Sufferers Trust