ME-Gids.Net

At the present time, ME is used differently by different
theorists, and our article is an attempt to increase dialogue
and communications among the disparate parties. In other
words, we are not comparing case definitions. Rather, we are
only trying to highlight and summarize the characteristics
of the illness described by ME theorists in the field. We
have tried to summarize the opinions of a number of leading
ME theorists in the hope that it will lead to more consensus
among theorists and researchers when they try to use theME
criteria to identify groups for research purposes.

For ME to be diag-
nosed reliably across health care professionals, it is imper-
ative to provide specific thresholds and scoring rules for
symptomatic criteria, which we have tried to do. Without
such standardization, symptom variability will be a function
of the assessment procedure and etiological factors. In other
words, by determining specific parameters and scoring rules
for the symptomatic criteria, variability is likely to result in
increased diagnostic reliability.