Conclusions to draw

 What are patients and physicians too make of all these different diagnostic criteria and important research suggestions for their modification?

First, when acceptable to the physician, diagnose using the 2003 Canadian definition.

Second, in order to confirm the diagnosis, the patient and physician may want to make a careful comparison with the Holmes criteria (disregarding the exclusion of non-major mental illness diagnoses) using the additional symptoms suggested by Komaroff et al. and De Meirleir et al.

Third, when a patient is applying for public or private sector disability and insurance programs, such diagnosis should also be specifically documented using the 1994 CDC criteria.