Physical, Behavioral, and Psychological Risk Factors for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Chronic Fatigue and Sociodemographic Characteristics as Predictors of Psychiatric Disorders in a Community-based Sample

“…These abnormalities are reported to affect psychiatric functioning and are thought to be associated with overlapping cognitive abnormalities observed in many individuals with chronic fatigue (36). Furthermore, previous research suggests that some individuals with chronic fatigue not only experience multiple physical, interpersonal, occupational, and financial losses as a result of their illness, but also report a prior history of stressful life events, trauma, and early disruptions in object relations, depending on the individual (37)(38)(39).…”

“…Other studies have found an association between significant life stressors and chronic health conditions, such as infections, fatigue, and chronic fatigue syndrome (37,38). In addition, individuals identifying themselves as African American, Latino American, or other ethnic groups demonstrated significantly higher rates of posttraumatic stress disorder than individuals identifying themselves as White.…”

“…Hollingshead's (24) scoring scale was used to classify socioeconomic status, and explicit definitions were provided to incorporate the variables of occupation and education. Continuous scores from this scale ranging from 5 to 54 were used to define socioeconomic status according to the following categories: low (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14), low-middle (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24), middle (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34), middle-high (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44), and high (45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54). The...…”

The Epidemiology of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

“…In all of these not only is fatigue prominent, but so are many of the other somatic symptoms found in CFS. Studies that have looked for it report overlaps between CFS and irritable bowel (Gomborone et al, 1996), multiple chemical sensitivity (Buchwald & Garrity, 1994), fibromyalgia (Buchwald, 1996) and premenstrual syndrome (Dobbins et al, 1995). We suspect that considerable overlaps exists between all the various syndromes based on medically unexplained symptoms (Nimnuan et al, submitted for publication).…”

Onset Patterns and Course of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

“…The aforementioned concepts are not entirely new. In 1995, to explain why 95% of their ME/CFS subjects endorsed a stressful event at onset, Dobbins et al (73) initially advanced stress as a causative factor or as a byproduct of recall bias but then also considered that “the perception of stress is [also possibly] correlated with some other variable related to the pathogenesis of CFS.” These concepts are testable. By prospectively following adolescents stricken by Epstein-Barr mononucleosis, Katz et al (99) have already demonstrated that autonomic dysfunction is predictive of ME/CFS several months later.…”