The issue with CFS isn't to do with stigma against mental illness. It's with the mainstream medical community being uninterested in anything other than mental health treatments for a disease that clearly has a physical (viral/immune) component in the vast majority of cases. There are drugs for depression, and vast amounts of research has gone into their development. Why no similar research effort into drugs for CFS? It's not because we don't know what causes it -- we don't know what causes depression in many cases. It's not because there aren't enough sufferers -- there are millions. It's not because of lack of demand, or lack of existing costs to medical systems, or anything like that.

It's because the medical establishment doesn't really think CFS is a thing. They don't care about it, they don't pay attention to it, they don't see it as real. It's not a fatal disease in the same way that cancer is, and its symptoms sound like a teenager complaining about not wanting to go to school. The answer, as far as the medical establishment is concerned, is that nothing's really terribly wrong, buck up, and you'll be better soon. Oh, and take these antidepressants. Any mental illness inevitably brought on by being chronically physically ill (and not really believed) is pointed to as the underlying issue.

(I mean the above to represent how the medical community collectively sees CFS. There are certainly individuals within the community who take it very seriously. There are simply too few of them, and too few in positions of authority. And, to be fair, as I commented below, it can be very difficult to distinguish between CFS and a neurotic who just needs to be told they are fine and sent home, especially if you only have a very short time to interview them.)

It's upsetting, but it's easy to see how a bunch of what seem like tired, unhappy people with normal blood tests aren't leaping out as needing special attention. That's why a biomarker is massive. All of a sudden the medical community has to pay attention, will want to pay attention. It's a huge new drug market, if nothing else...

Let's hope this biomarker holds up under further tests. There's still a long way to go before I get too excited.