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Summer 2001

Media Watch
A report on coverage of CFIDS in the mainstream media

Good Morning America (GMA)
Laura Hillenbrand, CFIDS patient and author of best-selling novel "Seabiscuit: An American Legend," was interviewed in an Aug. 29 segment on GMA. The program focused on her struggle with CFIDS. Viewers were referred to the show's Web site, which contained a link to www.cfids.org.

NPR Show
"Charlotte Talks," a one-hour talk show on National Public Radio's Charlotte, N.C. affiliate station, featured CFIDS on Aug. 21. CFIDS Association President & CEO Kim Kenney, Dr. Charles Lapp and patient Kathryn Schwille discussed the illness and its effects.

Woman's Day
In a Sept. 18 article in Woman's Day, Dr. Donna Dean, former co-chair of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Coordinating Committee, pointed out that CFIDS is not the same as chronic fatigue. "This fatigue can easily become incapacitating, confining about 25% of patients to their homes," said Dr. Dean.

Pediatric Study Covered
The Aug. 26 issue of the Chicago Tribune contains a short article on Dr. David Bell's 13-year follow-up study of children with CFIDS. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, has been covered in several other publications, due in part to a news release from The CFIDS Association.

Physician Column
Dr. Rob Danoff used his July 24 health column in the Bucks County Courier Times to address CFIDS. He emphasized its debilitating symptoms and interviewed an infectious disease specialist about diagnosis and treatment.

Patients Profiled
The Stamford Advocate in Stamford, Conn. ran a feature on CFIDS on Aug. 7 that presented 28-year-old Karyn Bennitt's experience. The article has been reprinted in other newspapers, including The Boston Globe. The Fredericksburg, Va., Free Lance-Star Sept. 2 issue profiles Cameron Williams, a 16-year-old boy who has been coping with CFIDS for two and a half years.

Medical Coverage Increases
Thanks in part to aggressive promotion by The CFIDS Association, articles on the illness have been appearing in more medical publications of late - including American Medical News (July 23), which reaches more than 200,000 physicians, OB/GYN News (July 15) and Internal Medicine News (Aug.1).

JAMA STUDY MISINTERPRETED
A review article in the Sept. 19 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) caused many members of the media to overestimate the effectiveness of graded exercise and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for CFIDS.

The review's authors, who examined 44 treatment studies conducted from 1986-2000, concluded that exercise and CBT have shown "promising results" in CFIDS. Some mainstream media began implying that these therapies can cure CFIDS, despite the fact the authors admitted there was insufficient evidence from the studies to draw definite conclusions.

The CFIDS Association issued a statement that behavioral therapies are not a cure, and stressed that they can be harmful to CFIDS patients. The Association also pointed out that the exercise referred to in the article is graded therapy, conducted under the supervision of a skilled professional, not exercise as the general public understands it.
The Association asked members of its CFIDS Activist (C-ACT) and CFIDS Public Relations (CPR) teams to help counteract misperceptions about the illness and treatment by responding to coverage appearing in their local newspapers.

For more on the JAMA review article, see box at bottom of Research News page.