[CO-CURE] RES,NOT: First official death from CFS

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Source: New Scientist

Date:   June 15, 2006

Author: Rowan Hooper

URL:    http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9342 & feedId=health_rss20

 

 

First official death from chronic fatigue syndrome

-----------------

 

Chronic fatigue syndrome has been given as an official cause of death -

apparently for the first time in the world.

 

On Tuesday, coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley of Brighton and Hove Coroners

Court, UK, recorded the cause of death of a 32-year-old woman as acute

aneuric

renal failure (failure to produce urine) due to dehydration as a result of

CFS.

The deceased woman, Sophia Mirza, had suffered from CFS for six years.

 

CFS, which is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), has a variety of

devastating symptoms ranging from extreme weakness, inability to concentrate

and persistent headache. Sufferers can have the disease for years, but its

cause remains controversial, with fiercely opposing views from psychiatrists

on

one side and biologically minded physicians on the other.

 

The coroner's verdict is a breakthrough for those who argue that CFS is a

physical condition, possibly with its roots in the immune system. Dominic

O'Donovan, a neuropathologist at Oldchurch Hospital in Romford, UK, who gave

evidence at the inquest, said that Sophia's spinal cord showed inflammation

caused by dorsal root ganglionitis - a clear physical manifestation of the

disease.

 

 

Overactive immune response

 

CFS specialist Jonathan Kerr of St George's, University of London, says he's

not surprised that inflammation in the spinal cord has been found in someone

with the disease, as it is known to be associated with it. He says that the

immune system tends to be over-activated in people with CFS and this may

underlie the inflammation of the neurological tissue.

 

'People have been reluctant to to the biological side because of

the

power of the psychiatric lobby,' says Kerr. 'Doctors are sceptical about the

existence of CFS and there is controversy about its underlying cause.'

 

Abhijit Chaudhuri, a consultant neurologist at the Essex Centre of

Neurological

Science who worked with O'Donovan on Sophia's case, says the changes to her

spinal cord may have resulted in symptoms of chronic fatigue.

 

'Sophia's case sheds light on CFS because there were changes in her dorsal

ganglia - the gatekeepers to sensation in the brain - and we know that

fatigue depends on sensory perception,' he says. 'What we need to understand

is what happens that makes fatigue more persistent, without there being an

obvious systemic disturbance.'

 

 

Rigorous inquest

 

The inquest was rigorous, Chaudhuri says, and considered all other potential

causes of death consistent with the post-mortem results, such as sleep apnoea

 

and drug use, and rejected them.

 

The verdict was welcomed by Sophia's mother, Criona Wilson, who had to fight

for recognition that her daughter was physically - rather than mentally -

ill.

Sophia was sectioned for two weeks under the Mental Health Act in 2003.

 

'I'm extremely pleased that CFS/ME was identified on the death certificate

as one of the primary causes of Sophia's death,' she says, 'because this

can be used to reinforce the need for biomedical research into the disease.'

 

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© 2006 Reed Business Ltd.

 

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