Cognitive and mood-state changes in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome

In this paper the cognitive and psychiatric impairments associated with chronic fatigue syn-drome (CFS) and related disorders are reviewed. It is concluded that while acute mononucleosis and infection with Epstein-Barr virus occasionally result in impaired cognition, such changes have not yet been objectively verified in patients with CFS. However, when patients with CFS are carefully studied, concurrent or premorbid psychiatric disorders are revealed at a greater than chance level. Finally, some suggestions are offered regarding improved neuropsychological assessment of fatigue, concentration, and attention for patients with CFS. The findings to date, while suggesting that psychological predisposition may playa role in the expression of CFS, are still inconclusive regarding the etiology of CFS. When an illness is vaguelyor poorly defined, there is a ten-dency to view it as "a punishment which fits the objective character... making it an expression of the inner self " [1]. Such illnessesoftenare initiallyviewedas havinga psychiatric etiology. Certainly, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) fulfills the definition of a minimally defined medical condition t