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Chronic fatigue syndrome: understanding a complex illness

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 12, pages 539–544 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a debilitating illness that affects many people. It has been marred by controversy, from initial scepticism in the medical community about the existence of the condition itself to continuing disagreements — mainly between some patient advocacy groups on one side, and researchers and physicians on the other — about the name for the illness, its aetiology, its pathophysiology and the effectiveness of the few currently available treatments. The role of the CNS in the disease is central in many of these discussions. Nature Reviews Neuroscience asked four scientists involved in CFS research about their views on the condition, its causes and the future of research aimed at improving our understanding of this chronic illness.

Why do we not know what causes CFS and why is the field so polarized?

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Acknowledgements

Members of the Trans-NIH ME/CFS Research Working Group, the Office of Research on Women's Health and the Institute Offices of Communications contributed to the responses by D.M.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Inflammation and Immunity Division, Stephen T. Holgate is at the University of Southampton, Infection, School of Medicine, Southampton General Hospital, Tremona Road, Southampton, SO16 6YD, UK.,

    Stephen T. Holgate

  2. Anthony L. Komaroff is at the Harvard Medical School and the Brigham and Women's Hospital, 10 Shattuck Street, Second Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA.,

    Anthony L. Komaroff

  3. Dennis Mangan is at the Office of Research on Women's Health, Office of the Director, US National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA.,

    Dennis Mangan

  4. Simon Wessely is at the Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK.,

    Simon Wessely

Authors
  1. Stephen T. Holgate
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  2. Anthony L. Komaroff
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  3. Dennis Mangan
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  4. Simon Wessely
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Stephen T. Holgate, Anthony L. Komaroff, Dennis Mangan or Simon Wessely.

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Competing interests

S.T.H. is Chair of the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) CFS/ME Expert Group.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CFS homepage

UK Medical Research Council CFS/ME funding homepage

Trans-NIH ME/CFS Research Working Group

Simon Wessely's homepage

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Holgate, S., Komaroff, A., Mangan, D. et al. Chronic fatigue syndrome: understanding a complex illness. Nat Rev Neurosci 12, 539–544 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3087

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