Chronic Fatigue

With inter­na­tional clas­si­fi­ca­tion, a require­ment for diag­no­sis is dura­tion of (med­ically) unex­plained per­sis­tent or relaps­ing fatigue of at least six months.  In prac­tice the syn­drome can be iden­ti­fied in cases of much shorter duration.

Fea­tures include FATIGUE which is unusual by its per­sis­tence, with:

• Poor alle­vi­a­tion by rest, and post-exertion malaise last­ing more than 24 hours

• Impair­ment of life activities

• Asso­ci­ated mus­cle pain and/or joint pain with­out arthritis

• Recur­rent sore throats

• Ten­der cer­vi­cal or axil­lary lymph nodes

• Unre­fresh­ing sleep

• Asso­ci­ated new or dif­fer­ent headaches

• Cog­ni­tive impair­ments. These may include short-term mem­ory and con­cen­tra­tion dif­fi­cul­ties and dif­fi­culty in new learning

• A large spec­trum of other dys­func­tions, seem­ingly cov­er­ing almost any bod­ily system.