A 1991 editorial by SW contains the following:
As seems par for the course, his 2½ page editorial contains 51 references.
I found this among a compendium of similar SW quotes gathered by @Valentijn at PR.
https://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/simon-wessely-quotes.21025/
"Failure to identify an underlying illness that presents as and causes fatigue should be distinguished from failure to identify concomitant noncausative (incidental) pathology. We believe it is a greater error to overlook a condition that responds to treatment than to fail to identify a disorder over which we have no control."
RE: this quote -- "As patients undergo more tests, they will focus on a laboratory abnormality and subsequently find researchers interested in studying these abnormalities". 50
Jumping in a million years later, that quote cited from source 50 stating that is not actually in that source.
Here is a clear statement in the 'Guidance for health professionals on medically unexplained symptoms (MUS)' Royal College of Psychiatrists, which states "Investigation causes significant iatrogenic harm" see https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/pdf/CHECKED MUS Guidance_A4_4pp_6.pdf
It has a reference list and cites two seen as supporting this statement.
[Added - these references are
- Kouyanou K, Pither CE, Wessely S. Iatrogenic factors and pain. Psychosomat Med 1997; 59:597-604.
- Fink P. The use of hospitalizations by persistent somatizing patients. Psychol Med 1992; 22:173-80. ]
Found it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2539651/
Oh oh oh oh oh - I see Martin Bland (Stats Prof) has found it too... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127546/
ETA: I've now found my previous post about this: https://www.s4me.info/threads/who-said-dont-bother-testing-patients.6532/page-6#post-119882
And I'll just add that in Wessely's reply, he (correctly) points out that this flaw doesn't change the conclusions of their study. OK. But it does indicate that if they are so sloppy with their stats, how many other mistakes might they have made? They also ignore all the other points that Martin Bland made.
Do you have a reference for this? I thought Ramsay said all ME was relapsing / remitting.Ramsay also followed patients over the years, found a relapsing/ remitting condition to account for about half the cases.
As a side issue, but I think and important one, they seem to use the words fatigue and tiredness interchangably.