I received this tweet from @cinderkeys in early November  (Eons ago in Twitter time! My apologies for the late response.)

"@fibropr101 Any advice on how to get media to dig deeper when psychiatrists make bogus claims about #MECFS or fibro being psychosomatic?"

While she didn't reference any particular news item or broadcast, I'll take a guess that @cinderkeys is most likely referring to claims that many people with fibromyalgia and/or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are often told their illness or symptoms are "all in your heads," a psychosomatic condition, not a physical one, and therefore treatable by psychiatrists or psychologists. Many FM and CFS patients say they feel dismissed and very misunderstood when they are referred by their physicians to the mental health professionals.

A recent article on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome published in Pyschology Today ("Awakening to the Reality of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" drew a lot of irate reader comments, just by the very fact that the article was in this publication.

So, going back to the question: how can we get media to dig deeper about 'bogus claims' on these chronic pain illnesses being psychosomatic?

Here are two ways:

1. Give the reporter science-based evidence to the contrary
2. Give the reporter a peer-to-peer response. In other words, an opposing response from one psychiatrist (or other medical professional0 to another might prove more credible to the reporter.

To expand on #1, look at the reader comments to the above article. Many of the responses talked about the newest scientific evidence on CFS, including this post from Carlos Rodriguez:

"I can´t hardly believe that anyone can post an article of CFS todaywithout even mentioning the brand new research published in ScienceMagazine last October were they already conclude that a new humanpathogen, the XMRV retrovirus, is present in most of CFS patients inthe study, while only in 3,7% of healthy population. This alreadyimplies a main role of this retrovirus in CFS patients. There are only3 human pathogen retroviruses known so far: HIV, Leukemia and now XMRV,also linked to prostate cancer.
This is already reason enough to leave psychology or psychiatry out of the treatments of this illness."

For #2, if there is a medical professional on your organization's board of directors, ask her to write a response or letter to the reporter. There are also many other medical professionals out there who are very knowledgeable about FM and CFS, and understand the issues of their patients. Cite their works to the reporter. Offer them as a "future resource" for other related stories on the subject. It might take a long while for a follow-up article, but the wait will be worth it.

Thanks for bringing up this important topic, @cinderkeys!