The Psychiatric Sequelae of Benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis

Abstract

During the 1950s, epidemics of an illness which came to be known as Benign Myalgic Encephalomyelitis were reported from many different parts of the world. Fourteen such epidemics have been reviewed by Acheson (1959). As each fresh outbreak was reported several curious features began to emerge. No virus or other aetiological agent could ever be incriminated, in spite of strong evidence for an infective origin. The illness showed a strange predilection for young women, particularly nurses, and several epidemics occurred in association with poliomyelitis. And though muscular weakness and other neurological disabilities were often severe, objective evidence of damage to the central nervous system was usually conspicuously absent. Indeed, in comparison with other forms of encephalomyelitis the illness seemed mild, even trivial, yet those affected often suffered repeated relapses and exacerbations for many months or even years, and were always curiously slow to regain their former vigour.