For years, the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome has not been explicitly understood. Doctors and scientists have proposed all manner of potential causes, from being genetic to psychological.
Diagnosis has based purely on symptoms as there’s no diagnostic test either.
Now, researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College in London think they may have figured out an explanation. Their study not only highlights the condition’s legitimacy, it also claims the cause may lie in the immune system.
Chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, is thought to affect as many as 17 million people worldwide. Characterized by long-term mental and physical fatigue, the illness can even sometimes leave sufferers unable to properly care for themselves.
However, there’s been quite a debate over the condition. Some critics have even dismissed it as being psychosomatic. In fact, there’s even a Wikipedia entry dedicated to the controversy surrounding the syndrome.
One of the main issues is that many people who suffer from CFS often show no symptoms other than tiredness.
These researchers, however, are demonstrating that CFS – also referred to as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) – could have a legitimately discernible cause.
Their discoveries were based on a study involving 55 patients with Hepatitis C. When the patients were treated with a drug called interferon alpha, thirty percent of them developed CFS-like symptoms.
These findings were recently published in the international scientific journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.
Interferon alpha, which is made from human proteins, is considered a “biologic response modifier.” Basically, it triggers a powerful immune response – the same sort of response one would have when fighting a serious infection. (It’s also sometimes used in certain cancer treatments for this very reason.)
“Our findings suggest that people who have an exaggerated immune response to a trigger may be more at risk of developing CFS,” said lead researcher Dr. Alice Russell.
Those that showed symptoms of the condition had an exaggerated immune response to the treatment. Notably, they also had a hyperactive immune system prior to treatment as well.
Knowing there could be a link between a boosted immune response and fatigue is a significant development in understanding CFS. Granted, there’s still a lot to uncover regarding the condition, this could eventually even lead to new forms of treatment.
For those who suffer from the syndrome, this certainly challenges the stigma associated with it. That fact alone may be good news for many.
