DEAR ABBY: I would like to correct a statement made by a reader in one of your recent columns. The writer was Thomas E. Smith, Ph.D.
It is not "many" medical professionals who deny that chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS) is a real disease, but MOST of us who hold this view -- and for good reason. There is no evidence whatsoever for the misguided belief that these unfortunate patients have a problem with their immune systems. All the reliable evidence indicates that they suffer from depression.
However, many people still do not accept the idea that the body may be affected by the mind, and the mind by the body. Depression untreated surely causes as much suffering as any other disease. Fortunately, we now have medications that more effectively treat symptoms of depression -- one of which is fatigue. Even those few physicians who do believe in the existence of CFIDS treat such patients with anti-depression medications. -- EUGENE SCHOENFELD, M.D., PSYCHIATRIST, AUTHOR AND COLUMNIST, SAUSALITO, CALIF.
DEAR DR. SCHOENFELD: Other physicians have written to echo your sentiments on this subject. However, whatever the cause of CFIDS, it is a real disease to those who suffer from it, and whatever method is used to treat CFIDS, if it works, then I am for it.