A Comparison of the 1988 and 1994 Diagnostic Criteria for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is an illness that involves severe, prolonged fatigue as well as neurological, immunological, and endocrinological system pathology. Because the pathogenesis of CFS has yet to be determined, case definitions have relied on clinical observation in classifying signs and symptoms for diagnosis. In an attempt to address various criticisms and inconsistencies in diagnostic criteria, there have been several revisions of the CFS case definition. The current investigation examined the differences between 1988 and 1994 definitions as well as participants who had a psychiatric explanation for their fatigue. Dependent measures included psychiatric comorbidity, symptom frequency, and functional impairment. The 1988 criteria, compared to the 1994 criteria, appeared to select a group of participants with more symptomatology and functional impairment, but these groups did not significantly differ in psychiatric comorbidity. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

TRUTH AND METATHEORY IN FREGE

In this paper it is contended, against a challenging recent interpretation of Frege, that Frege should be credited with the first semi-rigorous formulation of semantic theory. It is argued that the considerations advanced against this contention suffer from two kinds of error. The first involves the attribution to Frege of a sceptical attitude towards the truth-predicate. The second involves the sort of justification which these arguments assume a classical semantic theory attempts to provide. Finally, it is shown that Frege was in fact mindful of the need for the relevant sort of justification.     

Effects of providing sensory stimulation to decrease self-stimulatory behavior: using additional food to suppress hand-mouthing behavior

This study describes the use of sensory stimulation to reduce self-stimulatory behavior of hand mouthing by an institutionalized adult male with profound developmental disabilities. The data showed that when an extra amount of food was presented to eat at meal time, the mouthing behavior decreased quickly to an appreciably lower level. Results suggested that additional food could effectively reduce hand-mouthing behavior in a short period of time if it served a similar function—to provide preferred sensory reinforcers to the individual. An interesting phenomenon which had been observed in this study was a shift in sensory stimulatory behavior or sensory reinforcer from one form to another. While hand mouthing was decreasing, vocalization seemed to be increasing. The advantages of providing additional food as a treatment strategy are discussed with reference to other studies using response inhibition to treat hand mouthing behavior. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.