Sweden: Seminar for doctors on how to distinguish ME from chronic fatigue/burnout

The Journal of the Swedish Medical Association is arranging this seminar for the third year in a row. They've had 1 100 participants till now and I believe it's been one of their most popular seminars ever.

This time the seminar will take place in Sundsvall April 1st.

There will be two lectures on chronic fatigue/burnout syndrome and two lectures on ME. The latter lectures will be held by MD Per Julin from the ME/CFS clinic at Stora Sköndal and by prof. Jonas Bergquist.

https://magnetevent.se/Event/utmatt...5ox6bu99msBHDrquU_vt3pObUMUX31xBUg92u1Flz6saU

 

Fun fact: I was born in Sundsvall and lived there the first 20 years of my life .
It’s a rather large city located almost in the middle of Sweden, at the coastline, with approximately 90 000 inhabitants. It's easy to access by any mode of transportation and is rather tourist friendly, so hopefully the seminar will be sold out.

 

Here's an example of what is being taught at these seminars:

 

Sounds quite decent if not yet absolutely perfect. I'm so glad for our long-suffering Swedish comrades.

 

I just learned that the seminar has been canceled due to COVID-19 . A family member was registered to attend and received a mail about the seminar unfortunately being postponed, a new date will be announced, likely in the autumn.

 

Oh I like this! There needs to be a clear explanation that burn out syndrome is not Me/cfs. Burn out is the go-to-diagnose-for-everything-I-don’t understand now for docters, so it’s good to pay attention to the differences. I think it’s not that hard to diagnose the difference, if you know where to look for. Maybe in some cases in the beginning of the disease, it is more difficult.

 

26 November 2020

https://magnetevent.se/Event/utmattningssyndrom-och-mecfs-35866/

 

Article now available in English too:

https://ki.se/en/research/dead-tired-curious-about-tiredness

 

'How to reduce everyday tiredness

3) Exercise. Physical activity is energising '

Sigh. There was no reservation for ME/CFS patients as far as I could see.

 

First, about 'the brain telling the body to prioritise', I find this is very likely to be over simplifying what is happening.

Also, because this person is a behaviourist then de facto she will not be considering any other possibility. What if the differences lie in very small and specific differences in biochemistry between individuals. That would be difficult work to tease out.

But coming up with explanations for behavioural differences. Anybody can do that. I would say at this point from what I've read you don't even need a degree to manage this level of 'expertise'. And of course this type of work provides something that actual science can't;
Instant Gratification.

The clinician can be pleased at letting everyone know that they have sorted it all out and that the sick person is simply being too preoccupied with their own functioning etc. It's a real 'feel good' moment for the clinician who knows beyond a shadow of any doubt that they would never succumb to this weakness. But their caring and compassion can help the rest of us.

Ooooo, look at that. Psychologising can be fun.

 

Just to clarify, by "this is an example of what is being taught at these seminars", I only meant the kind of stuff expressed in the Per Julin quote. Not the whole article or the bps stuff.

 

That advice box at the end "How to reduce everyday tiredness" was a bit unfortunate. It's not meant to refer to ME but that could definitely have been made clearer.

The article itself is actually quite interesting. Much of it discusses a number of different types of tiredness and fatigue - and stresses that they are different. It specifically makes the point that ME and burnout (or what they call exhaustion disorder) are different things, how only ME is defined by PEM, and how it's likely that in the past a lot of studies would have had a mix of participants with ME and burnout, leading to unreliable results.

 

Just that acknowledgement is progress.

If only we could get the likes of Sharpe, Chalder, Moss-Morris et al to read the paper. If they could only find the mental flexibility to wrap their brains round this concept.