Date sent:      	Tue, 12 Dec 2000

Feminist perspectives on the social construction of
chronic fatigue syndrome.

Health Care Women Int 2000 Apr-May;21(3):173-85

Richman JA, Jason LA, Taylor RR, Jahn SC

Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois,
Chicago 60612, USA. mailto:JRichman@uic.edu

PMID: 11111464, UI: 20563313

We contrast Western medical views of chronic fatigue
syndrome (CFS) etiology, diagnosis, and treatment with
views maintained by a predominantly female CFS
population.

We argue that the failure of Western medicine to
demonstrate a viral etiology for CFS led to a
paradigmatic shift in research perspectives, which
then embraced psychiatric and sociocultural
explanations for CFS. As a result, CFS was
delegitimized as a biomedical phenomenon within
medical, academic, governmental, and public arenas.

We compare alternative social constructions of CFS
with issues pertaining to multiple sclerosis (MS), an
illness that similarly predominates among women.
Patient perspectives suggest that the history of
medical attitudes toward CFS may eventually parallel
the transformations that occurred in relation to MS.
In particular, the discovery of biological markers for
CFS may lay to rest the categorization of CFS as
largely within the psychiatric realm.



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