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Critical overview of the draft guidelines

by Ted Shaw

Summary of the way the draft guidelines present CFS

The premise of the Guidelines is that CFS is a post-infectious behavioural and interpretive disorder that is initiated by a viral infection or other stressor that causes the victim to believe that the illness continues on after the acute infectious stage and to imagine that the symptoms are severe and damaging. This belief creates a fear of exercise which leads to prolonged inactivity and deconditioning, the supposed cause of many of the symptoms.

Attributing the cause of the illness to a viral infection or other physical cause is seen as the leading indicator of this behavioural problem, which is thought to be perpetuated by physicians who mistakingly assign a physical rather than psychological diagnosis to the illness. The cure for this interpretative disorder is believed to be cognitive behavioural therapy, which attempts to treat the faulty view of the illness, remove the fear of physical activity and instigate graded exercise programs to overcome the effects of deconditioning.

Ted Shaw
January 1998

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Moira A Smith - Canberra, Australia
last revised 29 Sept, 1999