Treatments of chronic fatigue syndrome and its debilitating comorbidities: a 12-year population-based study

Abstract

Background This study aims to provide 12-year nationwide epidemiology data to investigate the epidemiology and comorbidities of and therapeutic options for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) by analyzing the National Health Insurance Research Database. Methods 6306 patients identified as having CFS during the 2000–2012 period and 6306 controls (with similar distributions of age and sex) were analyzed. Result The patients with CFS were predominantly female and aged 35–64 years in Taiwan and presented a higher proportion of depression, anxiety disorder, insomnia, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, renal disease, type 2 diabetes, gout, dyslipidemia, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren syndrome, and herpes zoster. The use of selective serotonin receptor inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), Serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitors (SARIs), Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), benzodiazepine (BZD), Norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs), muscle relaxants, analgesic drugs, psychotherapies, and exercise therapies was prescribed significantly more frequently in the CFS cohort than in the control group. Conclusion This large national study shared the mainstream therapies of CFS in Taiwan, we noticed these treatments reported effective to relieve symptoms in previous studies. Furthermore, our findings indicate that clinicians should have a heightened awareness of the comorbidities of CFS, especially in psychiatric problems.

A cross-sectional study exploring the relationship between symptoms of anxiety/depression and P50 sensory gating in adult patients diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis

“…After checking the widely used the HAMA and HAMD (Zhang et al, 2020;Zimmerman et al, 2020), we observed that the data from the HAMA, HAMD, and SCL-90 exhibited distinct trends regarding the assessment of emotional disorders (Figure 5). This confirmed that most patients with CFS had anxiety (69.5%) and depression (79%) according to HAMA and HAMD, suggesting that people with CFS have a high rate of comorbidity with anxiety/ depression (Leong et al, 2022). While many patients experience noticeable mental symptoms like anxiety or depression, they tend to perceive their condition primarily in terms of physical problems.…”

Effectiveness of an online multicomponent program (FATIGUEWALK) for chronic fatigue syndrome: A randomized controlled trial.

“…Research findings indicate a significantly higher incidence of mood and anxiety disorders among individuals with CFS/ME compared to those without functional somatic syndromes. Furthermore, the prevalence of these mental problems tends to be higher in CFS/ME compared to FM and irritable bowel syndrome (Daniels et al, 2017; Janssens et al, 2015; Leong et al, 2022). In this line, the present sample showed in average a moderate level of anxiety and depression.…”

Multimodal non-invasive non-pharmacological therapies for chronic pain: mechanisms and progress

“…Integrating biofeedback into exercise, massage, and physical therapy programs results in greater improvements in pain, mobility, and quality of life versus either therapy alone for musculoskeletal pain, temporomandibular joint disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, and pelvic pain [299][300][301][302][303][304] (Additional file 1: Fig. S4).…”