While the chapters in this book are a long way from solving the enigma that is CFS, they do represent important attempts to understand this complex and perplexing disease. A common theme in them all is CFS as a multisystem disease with the possibility of more than one cause and influenced by a variety of interacting factors. Further, they acknowledge the reality of CFS for persons with this disease and the importance of finding causes, treatments and ultimately a cure. As advanced biomedical research techniques are increasingly applied to the study of CFS, it is surely only a matter of time before biomarkers are identified, etiologies understood, and remedies devised.

While the chapters in this book are a long way from solving the enigma that is CFS, they do represent important attempts to understand this complex and perplexing disease. A common theme in them all is CFS as a multisystem disease with the possibility of more than one cause and influenced by a variety of interacting factors. Further, they acknowledge the reality of CFS for persons with this disease and the importance of finding causes, treatments and ultimately a cure. As advanced biomedical research techniques are increasingly applied to the study of CFS, it is surely only a matter of time before biomarkers are identified, etiologies understood, and remedies devised.

Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are serious, debilitating conditions that affect millions of people in the United States and around the world. ME/CFS can cause significant impairment and disability. Despite substantial efforts by researchers to better understand ME/CFS, there is no known cause or effective treatment. Diagnosing the disease remains a challenge, and patients often struggle with their illness for years before an identification is made. Some health care providers have been skeptical about the serious physiological - rather than psychological - nature of the illness. Once diagnosed, patients often complain of receiving hostility from their health care provider as well as being subjected to treatment strategies that exacerbate their symptoms. Beyond Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome proposes new diagnostic clinical criteria for ME/CFS and a new term for the illness - systemic exertion intolerance disease(SEID). According to this report, the term myalgic encephalomyelitis does not accurately describe this illness, and the term chronic fatigue syndrome can result in trivialization and stigmatization for patients afflicted with this illness. Beyond Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome stresses that SEID is a medical - not a psychiatric or psychological - illness. This report lists the major symptoms of SEID and recommends a diagnostic process.One of the report's most important conclusions is that a thorough history, physical examination, and targeted work-up are necessary and often sufficient for diagnosis. The new criteria will allow a large percentage of undiagnosed patients to receive an accurate diagnosis and appropriate care. Beyond Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome will be a valuable resource to promote the prompt diagnosis of patients with this complex, multisystem, and often devastating disorder; enhance public understanding; and provide a firm foundation for future improvements in diagnosis and treatment.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is now a recognized major and international medical concern. Neglected for many years because of its puzzling wide range of symptoms and inability to be “slotted” into any single mainstream medical discipline, CFS has gained government, academic, and public attention. In this innovative book, Dr. Jay Goldstein provides a medical narrative of an “evolving theory” of how the symptoms of CFS may develop through dysfunction of numerous physiological pathways. He describes the biologic basis of these assumptions, and, based on an analysis of basic medical principles, leads the reader to logical conclusions. In addition, Dr. Goldstein reveals a wealth of clinical experience by describing successes and failures of various therapies and discusses the reasons for the outcomes. Dr. Goldstein’s private practice is devoted to patients who fit the profile of a CFS sufferer. As a result, his extensive clinical experience has given him a unique hands-on perspective not readily available to most researchers. Chronic Fatigue Syndromes: The Limbic Hypothesis carefully reviews the extant research literature in each chapter. Although Dr. Goldstein cautions that this model should be viewed only as a PROMISING FOUNDATION for future research, no less than six peer reviewers, all leading researchers and clinicians in the CFS field, have endorsed the direction of Dr. Goldstein’s bold proposition. The breadth and scope of this book is perhaps best summarized by Paul Cheney, MD, PhD, a national leader in the field: “Despite its long history, the medical establishment with its great advances in biotechnology has been largely unable to crack the basic pathophysiology of the chronic fatigue syndrome. . . . Dr. Goldstein’s new book takes us to a place few people know well, and describes a plausible mechanism of injury to the deep brain which could explain every symptom seen in [patients with] chronic fatigue syndrome. . . . It is the unifying power of his hypothesis, together with emerging scientific support for this view, that makes this book an important one to read for both the patient with CFS, as well as the practitioner and medical scientist who attempt to understand it.”

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a complex, debilitating disorder, yet few current scientific biomedical books are available on the subject. The nonspecific symptoms, lack of diagnostic tests, and uncertainty as to the cause or causes of CFS make the disease that much more baffling. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Biological Approach represents a monu

Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is a severe chronic health condition that is often misunderstood or ignored by health establishments. The lack of definitive diagnostic markers to separate ME/CFS patients from the healthy population as well as from other chronic disorders is problematic for both health professionals and researchers. A consortium of Australian researchers gathered to systematically understand ME/CFS, ranging from a deep analysis of clinical and pathology data to metabolomic profiles and the investigation of mitochondrial function. From this broad collaboration, a number of compelling insights have arisen that may form the basis of specific serum, blood, and/or urinary biomarkers of ME/CFS. This Special Edition reports on a conference centred on these biomedical discoveries, with other contributions, with a translation focus for predictive markers for ME/CFS diagnosis. By supporting health professionals with developments in diagnostics for this condition, the patients and their families will hopefully benefit from an improved recognition of the biomedical underpinnings of the condition and will be better able to access the care that is urgently required. This Special Edition contains a mix of speaker submissions and other accepted manuscripts that contributed to our objective of advancing biomedical insights to enable the accurate diagnosis of ME/CFS.