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The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Comprehensive Approach to Its Definition and Study
- Keiji Fukuda, MD, MPH;
- Stephen E. Straus, MD;
- Ian Hickie, MD, FRANZCP;
- Michael C. Sharpe, MRCP, MRC Psych;
- James G. Dobbins, PhD;
- Anthony Komaroff, MD; and
- International Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Study Group.
- From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; Prince Henry Hospital and University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; University of Oxford and Warneford Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom; and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts. Requests for Reprints: Keiji Fukuda, MD, MPH, Mailstop A15, Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30333. Acknowledgments: The authors thank Carla Arpino, Judy Basso, Lyria Boast, Janet K. Dale, Karen Ezrine, Marya Grambs, K. Kimberly Kenney, Teruo Kitani, David Klonoff, Dorothy Knight, Gerhard R.F. Krueger, Hirohiko Kuratsune, Gudrun Lindh, Lars Lindquist, Lisa Livens, Alison Mawle, David McCluskey, John O'Connor, Orvalene Prewitt, Bonnie Randall, Karen B. Schmaling, Scott Schmid, John Stewart, Lars Wahlstrom, Denis Wakefield, and Andrew Wilson.
Abstract
The complexities of the chronic fatigue syndrome and the methodologic problems associated with its study indicate the need for a comprehensive, systematic, and integrated approach to the evaluation, classification, and study of persons with this condition and other fatiguing illnesses. We propose a conceptual framework and a set of guidelines that provide such an approach. Our guidelines include recommendations for the clinical evaluation of fatigued persons, a revised case definition of the chronic fatigue syndrome, and a strategy for subgrouping fatigued persons in formal investigations.
*For a listing of members of the Study Group, see Appendix.
- Copyright ©2004 by the American College of Physicians
