Chronic fatigue gets a new name from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The disease that affects thousands of Americans is also expected to get better diagnosis.
On Tuesday, Feb. 10, an IOM panel released a report that called for doctors and healthcare providers to address the disease properly and give proper attention towards the diagnosis of the disease.
The IOM report suggests that for many years patients, who have been suffering with chronic fatigue, have reported to the IOM that they have been misdiagnosed or even dismissed by skeptical doctors. However, IOM is now planning to redefine the controversial ailment.
IOM was responsible for putting together the report, which was requested by some federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
IOM also brought together 15 physicians and scientists to create a panel for analyzing the disease. Some panel members had experience in treating patients suffering with chronic fatigue and some of the panel members had made relevant research in the related field. The panel members are said to have analyzed several nation as well as international reports to compile the IOM report.
The IOM panel also named the disease as Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease, or SEID, which is believed to affect about 2.5 million people in the U.S. The report also underlined five criteria for the disease, which will help doctors to understand the symptoms of the disease to start appropriate diagnosis.
"We truly believe that this will help patients, and it will open the way to more frequent diagnosis," says Dr. Ellen Clayton. "We want to reaffirm that this is a serious illness that causes a lot of adverse symptoms. It can cause a lot of disability for patients, and it needs to be recognized as such."
Even though the findings of the panel do not set policies regarding the disease, IOM's report is expected to make a major impact in the industry. Experts believe that the report may potentially become a tool that will be used to defining chronic fatigue for research and diagnostic purposes in the U.S.
Some medical experts suggest that the latest IOM report about chronic fatigue does not address the full scope of the disease but gives some validations that many people have been seeking for years. The steps taken by IOM to recognize the disease may be small but it is still the start of something big to come in the near future.
