Chronic fatigue sufferers need help and more research – not misleading headlines | Suzanne O’Sullivan

A study in Lancet Psychiatry this week was reported as if exercise and counselling are magic cures for CFS. A closer reading of this timely research is required

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is characterised by chronic disabling fatigue where no medical disease has been found to explain it. Fatigue syndromes have been described under a variety of different names over many centuries. And for just as long they have been regarded with suspicion and judgment. The modern conception of CFS came to the fore in the 1980s, when it was briefly (and pejoratively) labelled "yuppie flu". Myalgic encephalopathy (ME) is a related condition considered by some to be synonymous with CFS and by others as something entirely separate. What sufferers with both these illness labels agree upon is that the word "fatigue" does not begin to do justice to a symptom that leaves those affected confined to their beds for months or even years at a time.

Related: Chronic fatigue patients criticise study that says exercise can help

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