(missed this gem...published in Feb...demeaning!!)
Science Evidence Posted at 4:15 PM on February 18, 2007 by Cliff Hutchinson
Somatic Illness in the Spotlight
A wonderful editorial in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) this month highlights a recurring problem in modern health care: the interference of secondary gain with good science in patient treatment. Gerald Weissmann, ``Chronic Lyme'' and other medically unexplained syndromes, 21 FASEB J. 299 (2007).
Infectious disease specialists carefully considered Lyme disease and came up with treatment guidelines, which have been endorsed by the CDC. They discourage long-term antibiotic therapy, because symptoms claimed for the condition called ``chronic Lyme disease'' seem more like normal background complaints unrelated to a specific disease. The experts noted that:
In many patients, post-treatment symptoms appear to be more related to the aches and pains of daily living rather than to either Lyme disease or a tickborne coinfection. Put simply, there is a relatively high frequency of the same kinds of symptoms in ``healthy'' people.
But in response to outcries from the Lyme advocacy community, the attorney general of Connecticut reportedly has invoked the antitrust laws against the Infectious Disease Society of America. Seems there's money at stake, because insurers might decide, based on the guidelines, not to pay for long-term antibiotics.
The attorney general's approach is reminiscent of earlier private litigation in Dallas, in which clinical ecologists challenged medical authorities for allegedly failing to recognize their protocols.
Weissmann points out that amplification of normal aches and pains into a ``disease'' is a practice with a long history.
The 19th century had ``railway spine,'' ``chronic appendicitis,'' and ``female hysteria.'' Modern disease advocates have produced ``chronic fatigue syndrome,'' "myalgic encephalitis,'' and ``total chemical allergy.'' People who have vague, unexplained symptoms have long sought the :''dignity'' that a specific disease diagnosis confers.
Physicians practicing valid science may become exasperated with patients who insist they are afflicted, and if only the doctor is more persistent or creative, he or she could find the true agent of disease.
Such patients may go from provider to provider until they find someone willing to name the illness, be it as far-fetched as ``chronic Lyme disease.'' The cost for society in all this may be more than fiscal, if the patients undertake dangerous and unnecessary therapies, as discussed in a previous post on Lyme disease..
-------------------- nan Posts: 2135 | From Tick Country | Registered: Oct 2000
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heiwalove
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posted
how awful.
isn't it just great to be sick with a disease that can totally disable and even kill you, but that isn't even recognized as EXISTING by the majority of the mainstream medical community?
posted
Yes, there is money involved, and not in treatment; that is why we are seeing this ruthless nasty campaign.
Anyone who is a fan of capitalism unchecked in the healthcare field should buy a cemetery plot now, because except for a minority of people, profit is the priority. Just look at the profits of the health insurers, and the salaries and perks paid to the people who run them.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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This must be a political website to put a subjective, ignorant article like this. There isn't even any reference to studies done to prove this 'theory'.
In response to prior centuries diseases not recongized today. People with Syphilus and diabetes used to be considered 'crazy', 'mad'... does that mean those don't exist?
The symptoms also aren't vague... sleeping 16 hours a day is not vague. Apart from Lyme(which a lot of people are testing positive for), there are a lot of other physiological things that doctors are finding, including Orthostatic Hypotension, Vagus Nerve inflammation, and some people taking several years to get a Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis.
The statement of the symptoms being in 'healthy people' is not subjective... it's just the cockiness of a healthy person.
You don't go from running 5 days a week, working out, and going back to school for Ph.D, to almost collapsing just to make it to bathroom. And it's not just me.
Ignava Ratio.
-------------------- Never walk through a cornfield backwards.
posted
I would like those who believe we're just getting old w/aches and pains everyone else has to subject themselves to lyme and coinfections.
No one can know what this is like w/o having it.
I'll offer a transfusion for them if they would like to speed up the course for their newly "informed" experience. Posts: 867 | From PA | Registered: Jan 2006
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Michelle M
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
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posted
I sent them a tart reply.
Unlikely they'll print it, but that's never stopped me.
The author is in the business of patient-bashing. A litigation defense lawyer. Insurance company suck-up. Bleah, yechh.
Michelle
Posts: 3193 | From Northern California | Registered: Apr 2005
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-------------------- Please consult your LLMD before making any changes to your treatment regimen. Posts: 641 | From NJ, USA | Registered: Oct 2001
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CaliforniaLyme
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posted
Isn't it amazing that somatic illness can cause dementia and death? I never knew that!! AMAZING*)!
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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sixgoofykids
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posted
That was all my duck could diagnose me with, even after I insisted on being tested for Lyme and came out CDC positive.
Um, yeah, I guess I'm just a baby and choose to feel this way.
Amazing that the treatment that supposedly doesn't work is working wonders for me! I know one thing, NO ONE who lives in my house would ever deny I was really ill.
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
So....let me get this straight. If my 4 yrs of abx treatment caused my symptoms to go into remission.....does that mean that I've lost my mind???
It was all in my head, right??
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
I think it is stupid. Somaform illness. Yea. We are learning about this is Psychology and it includes hypochondriacs and a few other things as well.
I think they just needed an answer for someone without an answer that why they made up somatoform illnesses. BEcause they couldn't figure it out.
That is crazy. People don't believe in stuff until it happens to them. People believe in other stuff but they can't believe in illness. Why would so many people make it up?
That's crazy. Maybe if everyone got bitten by ticks or whatever and got Lyme they would change there mind. They don't think about how we feel and others who have illnesses people think are 'fake'.
-------------------- Jesus sweated blood over the task that lay before Him.He could have escaped his brutal execution at anytime,but he didn't he stayed there for you.
God bless,Christi Posts: 306 | From Alabama | Registered: Feb 2007
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sixgoofykids
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
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posted
quote:Originally posted by Lymetoo: So....let me get this straight. If my 4 yrs of abx treatment caused my symptoms to go into remission.....does that mean that I've lost my mind???
Nah, it just means your mind thought you needed four years of treatment then it would quit making you think you were sick!
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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posted
And medical drs. disbelieved germs existed for a long, long time. They refused to wash their hands after examining post-mortem patients and then going to examine maternity ward patients. There was a high mortality rate among maternity patients in hospitals at this time.
The dr. who suggested the physicians were carrying germs on their hands from the morgue into the maternity ward was ostracized and run out of town. He could no longer practice medicine in several cities.
The arrogant drs. didn't want to take the time to wash their hands. Many women died.
Enter the microscope & guess what? Now everyone knows about germs.
How did I go from being healthy to being in a wheelchair? I've missed out on so much. How dare they compare this to aches & pains of growing old or everyday life. I used to have that and Lyme pain is comparable to to post-surgical pain!!!! Pain that drove my blood pressure into stroke-zone. How is that somatic illness?
I wish that author could get Lyme for a month with all the symptoms and then let him write about it. He'd be singing a different tune!
Kayda
Posts: 582 | From midwest | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
Another thing. I have lots of allergies & sensitivities to chemicals. They are very, very real. I don't know why I have them, but I sure didn't invent them.
Why would we all go to such lengths & jeapordize our financial well-being in the process of getting well if it didn't work? How do these jokers explain away those who respond well to antibiotics?
Kayda
Posts: 582 | From midwest | Registered: Nov 2006
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posted
Besides laughing in my face and still not believing I have Lyme Disease, even though I have a positive IgM from Igenex, my GP also said - "If you see enough people claiming you have Lyme Disease, then you will always find someone who will agree with you"!!!!
Posts: 67 | From UK | Registered: Jan 2007
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quote:Originally posted by sixgoofykids: Nah, it just means your mind thought you needed four years of treatment then it would quit making you think you were sick! [/QB]
OHHHHHH....I see!
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
SIENNA I see your doctor told enough people he was a doctor and he found some people to believe him.
Posts: 789 | From CT, | Registered: Jun 2006
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heiwalove
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posted
i've mentioned this on this site before, but i spent five months in a state psychiatric ward on heavy dose antipsychotics when i was so sick i couldn't get out of bed or think, because nobody believed i had lyme - despite a CDC positive igenex test (of course, every other test they gave me - all from quest - came back negative). they confiscated all my lyme meds and supplements (in other words, forced me off treatment for five months), which i had just started taking.
the 'diagnosis'? somatic delusional disorder. exactly the crap this guy is spouting.
and this was two years ago, in MN (a lyme endemic state).
posted
Al is totally right. Until there is an accurate test they can just say chronic Lyme doesn't exist. We need a good accurate test!!
Posts: 255 | From where we don't have Lyme disease | Registered: Jan 2007
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That is horrible you ended up in the hospital! That must've been horrendous.
~catwoman
Posts: 255 | From where we don't have Lyme disease | Registered: Jan 2007
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Geneal
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posted
It is unfortunate that ignorance breeds stupidity.
Of course the world is flat!!!
Kind of rings a bell....
Hugs,
Geneal
Posts: 6250 | From Louisiana | Registered: Oct 2006
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lymewreck36
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posted
AFter reading all of this this morning, I feel so kicked in the side. I cannot take the constant attack by mainstream medicine telling us we are not infected. It makes me loose my mind, or what is left of it. This disease has taken away all of the dreams I had for myslelf, all the work I love, everything I find stimulating.
Like this is what I want?!
mary
Posts: 1034 | From North Carolina | Registered: Aug 2003
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CaliforniaLyme
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posted
Al, that was funny*)!)*!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lymewreck, having Lyme puts us in a different reality!!!!!!!!!!!!Pre Lyme I thought people became doctors to help people- now I am much more cynical about the profession!!! But our LLMDs- they give me hope- they risk everything to treat us- because they do believe in us-
ONE DAY the truth will out!*)!!!!!!!!!
-------------------- There is no wealth but life. -John Ruskin
All truth goes through 3 stages: first it is ridiculed: then it is violently opposed: finally it is accepted as self evident. - Schopenhauer Posts: 5639 | From Aptos CA USA | Registered: Apr 2005
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lou4656
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posted
I posted on this topic on Feb 20, 2007 (subject line: somatization disorder). I was quite distressed about being diagnosed with somatization disorder by a neuropsychologist at the time, but have since learned better. The doc treating me for lyme threw the paperwork in the trash when I showed it to him.
This is a disgrace and a disservice to anyone being treated for lyme. Gosh . . . it makes me upset again just to think about it.
-------------------- LouLou Posts: 1276 | From maryland | Registered: Oct 2006
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breathwork
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posted
Is the author the same lawyer who wrote the inflammatory article for Forbes? He's a busy boy working out all of his issues from childhood....and making money from it...
Wish we could make money just being a twit! We all could certainly use the money!
Posts: 1062 | From CA USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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posted
Oranges with oranges and pears with pears....
This fight is not about medical science...is about POLITICS...
So Politics with Politics in this case IMO.
We need better political strategy.
We have enough medical evidence.
LB who had Lyme and many co-infections !!! Misdiagnosed by an ID because of no rash where the tick bit me , and neg lyme test.... even though I was as sick as a dog...
Posts: 983 | From The sky | Registered: Feb 2005
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sixgoofykids
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posted
quote:Originally posted by jaime1978: after reading this, I am now afraid to pursue a
lyme dx.
Find an LLMD and you won't be treated this way! Ignoring Lyme will not make it go away ... you need to be treated so it doesn't get worse (if you have it).
-------------------- sixgoofykids.blogspot.com Posts: 13449 | From Ohio | Registered: Feb 2007
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