Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome and Fibromyalgia are often used interchangeably, because a lot of its symptoms are similar to Fibromyalgia (FM.) Just like CFS, FM is also characterized by pain, fatigue and sleep deprivation. In fact, patients with CFS are often diagnosed with FM too. A study revealed 34% of patients with CFS also had FM. However, there are people who have only one of the two — either CFS or FM. There are four key differences between the two conditions.
References
Abbi, B., & Natelson, B. H. (2012). Is chronic fatigue syndrome the same illness as fibromyalgia: evaluating the ‘single syndrome’ hypothesis. QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, 106(1): 3-9.
Bellato, E., Marini, E., Castoldi, F., Barbasetti, N., Mattei, L., Bonasia, D. E., & Blonna, D. (2012). Fibromyalgia Syndrome: Etiology, Pathogenesis, Diagnosis, and Treatment. Pain Research and Treatment.
Evengard, B., Nilsson, C. G., Lindh, G., Lindquist, L., Eneroth, P., Fredrikson, S., . . . Henriksson, K. G. (1998). Chronic fatigue syndrome differs from fibromyalgia. No evidence for elevated substance P levels in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Pain, 78(2):153-5.
Fukuda, K., Straus, S. E., Hickie, I., Sharpe, M. C., Dobbins, J. G., Komaroff, A., & Group, I. C. (1994). The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; A Comprehensive Approach to its Definition and Study. Annals of Internal Medicine, 121(12): 53-59.
Kishi, A., Natelson, B. H., Togo, F., Struzik, Z. R., Rapoport, D. M., & Yamamoto, Y. (2010). Sleep stage transitions in chronic fatigue syndrome patients with or without fibromyalgia. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc, 5391-4.
Roth, T. (2009). Slow Wave Sleep: Does it Matter? Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 5(2 Suppl): S4-S5.
Shephard, R. J. (2001). Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Sports Med, 31: 167.