Possible Causes of CFS
Learning how to manage your fatigue, in spite of your symptoms, may help you improve the level at which you can function as well as your quality of life. A rehabilitation medicine specialist can evaluate you and teach you how to plan activities to take advantage of times when you usually feel better.
The lack of any proven effective treatment can be frustrating to both you and your health care providers. Scientists are currently conducting studies to evaluate such treatments as cognitive-behavioral therapy (a psychological therapy) and graduated exercise therapy. While early results look promising, these therapies do not work for everyone, and often induce improvement but not cure. If you have CFS, health experts recommend that you try to maintain good health by
- Eating a balanced diet and getting adequate rest
- Exercising regularly but without causing more fatigue
- Pacing yourself—physically, emotionally, and intellectually—because too much stress can aggravate your symptoms
The course of CFS varies from person to person. For most people, CFS symptoms reach a certain level and become stable early in the course of illness and thereafter come and go. Some people get better completely, but it is not clear how frequently this happens. Emotional support and counseling can help you and your loved ones cope with the uncertain outlook and the ups and downs of this illness.
Treatment
Antidepressants sometimes help to improve sleep and relieve mild, general pain in people with CFS. Because adequate doses of an antidepressant often increase fatigue, health care providers may have to start with a low dose and increase it very slowly or prescribe another type of antidepressant. Some people with CFS benefit from medicines used to treat acute anxiety as well as other nervous system problems such as dizziness and extreme tenderness in the skin. You should work closely with your health care provider to find a medicine, or a combination of medicines, that works well for you and that your body can tolerate.
NIAID is a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat infectious and immune-mediated illnesses, including HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, illness from potential agents of bioterrorism, tuberculosis, malaria, autoimmune disorders, asthma and allergies.
