Idiopathic chronic fatigue (non-ME)

[forestglip]

I thought there should be a thread to discuss chronic fatigue without the other symptoms of ME, but which has no apparent cause.

How prevalent is this? How many people are bedbound with severe fatigue, having to hear people say they are depressed or lazy because all their blood work is fine? How much is this being studied or advocated for?

 

[forestglip]

Epidemiology of ICF from Wikipedia:

"Fatigue is common in the general population and often caused by overwork, too much activity or a specific illness or disease. Around 20% of patients who visit their clinician report fatigue.[1] Prolonged fatigue is fatigue that persists for more than a month, and chronic fatigue is fatigue that lasts at least six consecutive months, which may be caused by a physical or psychological illness, or may be idiopathic (no known cause).[1] Chronic fatigue with a known cause is twice as common as idiopathic chronic fatigue.[6]

Idiopathic chronic fatigue affects between 2.4% and 6.42% of patients,[26] with females more likely to be affected than men.[1] Age at onset is typically over 50 years of age.[13] A significant number of patients present with idiopathic chronic fatigue as part of a mix of medically unexplained symptoms, while others present with a primary problem of fatigue alone.[1]"

 

[alktipping]

As far as i am concerned Idiopathic = the same as Mus basically the GP does not know .They really don't like to admit just how little they know about the human body considering the lack of real in depth study and research it would be foolish of any patient to expect full knowledge of every complaint they have .

 

[forestglip]

As far as i am concerned Idiopathic = the same as Mus basically the GP does not know .They really don't like to admit just how little they know about the human body considering the lack of real in depth study and research it would be foolish of any patient to expect full knowledge of every complaint they have .

I think that is basically the official definition:

A 1994 definition of ICF was a physical medical condition of unknown origin, persisting or relapsing for a minimum of six consecutive months, where CFS symptoms are not met.[6]