How To Perpetuate Your MCS For A Lifetime

On Mar 9, 1:16*pm, Mark Thorson wrote:

Is the Medical Library at Stanford open today, Mark?

And here's more information about that:

Ann Intern Med. 1999 Jun 1;130(11):910-21.
Functional somatic syndromes.
Barsky AJ, Borus JF.
Division of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital,
Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.

The term functional somatic syndrome has been applied
to several related syndromes characterized more by symptoms,
suffering, and disability than by consistently demonstrable
tissue abnormality. These syndromes include multiple chemical
sensitivity, the sick building syndrome, repetition stress
injury, the side effects of silicone breast implants, the
Gulf War syndrome, chronic whiplash, the chronic fatigue
syndrome, the irritable bowel syndrome, and fibromyalgia.
Patients with functional somatic syndromes have explicit
and highly elaborated self-diagnoses, and their symptoms
are often refractory to reassurance, explanation, and
standard treatment of symptoms. They share similar
phenomenologies, high rates of co-occurrence, similar
epidemiologic characteristics, and higher-than-expected
prevalences of psychiatric comorbidity. Although discrete
pathophysiologic causes may ultimately be found in some
patients with functional somatic syndromes, the suffering
of these patients is exacerbated by a self-perpetuating,
self-validating cycle in which common, endemic, somatic
symptoms are incorrectly attributed to serious abnormality,
reinforcing the patient's belief that he or she has a
serious disease. Four psychosocial factors propel this
cycle of symptom amplification: the belief that one has
a serious disease; the expectation that one's condition
is likely to worsen; the "sick role," including the
effects of litigation and compensation; and the alarming
portrayal of the condition as catastrophic and disabling.
The climate surrounding functional somatic syndromes
includes sensationalized media coverage, profound
suspicion of medical expertise and physicians, the
mobilization of parties with a vested self-interest in
the status of functional somatic syndromes, litigation,
and a clinical approach that overemphasizes the
biomedical and ignores psychosocial factors. All of
these influences exacerbate and perpetuate the somatic
distress of patients with functional somatic syndromes,
heighten their fears and pessimistic expectations,
prolong their disability, and reinforce their sick role.
A six-step strategy for helping patients with
functional somatic syndromes is presented here.

On Mar 9, 1:06*pm, Twittering One wrote:
My ADD medication really reduced a lot of my MCS.

Mark Probert does not believe in MCS, and he and I have become mortal
enemies over this issue.

Mark Thorson doesn't believe in it either---
He does a great cut and paste job out of the Stanford Medical
Library----
(The only reason I know this, is that's where his posts are coming
out of).

On Mar 9, 1:16*pm, Mark Thorson wrote:
And here's more information about that:



Here is a different opinion than how you believe from an educational
setting.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/0192.html