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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 In the past, some doctors regarded the syndrome as a psychosomatic byproduct of depression. And those who saw it as a legitimate illness could find few physiological signs of it.
"In the past, you had a tremendous amount of skepticism about [the syndrome], which created a certain amount of stigma for people who have it," said Leonard Jason, a professor of psychology and director of the Center for Community Research at DePaul University in Chicago.
The recent study, he added, "could ultimately lead to us understanding the physiology of this condition."
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The syndrome affects four adults per 1,000, but fewer children. To be diagnosed with it, a person must have a sudden onset of fatigue that lasts at least six months. There must also be four of the following eight symptoms: impaired memory, sore throat, tender neck or tender lymph nodes in the arm pit, muscle pain, joint pain, new headaches, troubled sleep and a feeling of malaise after exertion.
Rowe emphasized that having hyperflexible joints doesn't mean a person will have the syndrome. Just how the two are related is little more than a guess, Rowe and Jason agreed.
Children develop joint mobility in their early years, while the chronic fatigue syndrome doesn't generally show itself until puberty. It is difficult to find a causal relationship between the two, because not everyone who has the syndrome also has joint hypermobility, Rowe said.
Still, he wondered whether flexible joints may stress the peripheral nerves in the arms and legs, thereby fatiguing the entire nervous system, or the excessive range of motion may indirectly cause the syndrome.
"For example, if you're prone to injury because of your joints, you might decrease your activity, which studies have shown can lead to [the syndrome]," Rowe said.
To find better treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome, Rowe said he wanted to study hyperflexible joints in greater depth, and test whether they are also more common in adults with the syndrome.
Jason, though, said research should be aimed at genetics.
"I think there may be some genetic factors. We really should look at the parents. There could very well be a number of things passed on that make kids more prone to [the syndrome]," Jason said.
More information
A fact sheet about chronic fatigue syndrome is available at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (www.niaid.nih.gov ).
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