Dr Luis Nacul’s letter to the BMJ on overdiagnosis published

In a letter to the BMJ (British Medical Journal), Nacul, Kingdon and Lacerda from the UK ME/CFS Biobank team discuss the inherent risks of the mislabelling of someone as having a disease they may not have, commenting on an earlier essay by Stacy Carter in which she raises similar concerns. Nacul and colleagues argue that this is even more problematic when the diagnosis is largely based on clinical symptoms, such as in ME/CFS. They refer to their previous paper in which they discuss the wider implications of people being erroneously diagnosed with ME/CFS when they have chronic fatigue for other reasons, and, of people not being diagnosed with ME/CFS when they do have the disease (J Health Psychol 2017 doi:10.1177/1359105317695803). These reflections may be relevant to clinicians and researchers, and particularly to those dealing with ME/CFS, as well as to those with ME or CFS.

You can find the essay and Luis’ comments here.

August 2017