Chronic fatigue syndrome is a medical disorder that involves excessive fatigue that does not improve with rest and relaxation ongoing for greater than six months. In chronic fatigue syndrome, fatigue may worsen when doing physical or mental activities. Nobody knows exactly why chronic fatigue syndrome happens but some theories, including viral infections, exist. Other theories for the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome include depression, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), iron deficiency anemia (low blood counts due to decreased iron stores in the body), hormonal imbalance, allergies, immune system malfunction, or hypotension (low blood pressure). If an underlying cause of chronic fatigue syndrome is found, treatment focuses on that. Even in cases where the cause is not found, treatment can help and chronic fatigue syndrome may disappear over time. Risk factors for chronic fatigue syndrome include being a woman and being in your 40s and 50s. However, relatively little is known about other risk factors for the disease. If left untreated, chronic fatigue syndrome can lead to depression, deconditioning (weakness due to inactivity), social isolation, and missed work.
Exhaustion, fatigue, tiredness, non-restorative rest or sleep, inability to concentrate, loss of memory, sore throat, pain in the joints, headache, muscle pain, painful swollen lymph nodes in the neck or armpits, pain in other areas of the body, earache, dry cough, nausea, diarrhea, irregular heartbeat, jaw pain, irritability, panic attacks, change in weight, changes in vision
Your doctor will first talk to you about your symptoms and history f your illness. Your doctor will want to know about these symptoms that are criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome: loss of memory, sore throat, muscle pain, enlarged lymph nodes in the neck or armpits, pain that moves between joints, headache that is different than previous headaches, unrefreshing sleep, and extreme exhaustion for greater than 24 hours after exertion (either physical or mental). If you have had four or more of these symptoms over the past six months, your doctor may strongly consider the diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome. Your doctor will want to make sure that another medical illness or medication is not causing your fatigue. Your doctor may want to do some other testing including blood tests to make sure that you do not have any medical conditions like low blood counts or underactive thyroid causing your symptoms.
No specific treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome has yet been discovered, but your doctor will work to help decrease your symptoms and make you feel better. Your doctor may ask you to keep your daily activity in a certain range to keep from overdoing it but not be too sedentary, which can also lead to fatigue. Your doctor or therapist may also recommend cognitive behavioral therapy which involves discovering negative beliefs r behaviors and re-shaping them into more constructive beliefs. Treating depression may help your symptoms which can involve a variety of medications. Treating your pain with medications like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications like aspirin or ibuprofen or with other medications like Tylenol may help. As far as sleeping problems go, your doctor may recommend good sleep hygiene which means that you go to bed at the same time every night, have a relaxing activity before going to sleep, decrease and interruptions that may occur, not drink alcohol or caffeine at night, and use the bedroom only for sleep (and never for activities like work or watching TV). If these measures don’t work, your doctor may offer a medication to help sleep for a limited time. If you have allergy symptoms, you can try medications like antihistamines and decongestants. If you have low blood pressure, your doctor may offer medications to help with that specific problem. Some experimental medications may be offered by your doctor including psychostimulants like methylphenidate, corticosteroids, immune regulators, antiviral medications, and cholinesterase inhibitors. None of these medications have been proven to be effective. You should discuss your treatment options with your doctor.
