Description
This article is from the Chronic Fatigue
Syndrome (CFS) FAQ, by cfs-news@cais.com (Roger Burns) with
numerous contributions by others.
2.11 Is CFS related to depression?
Many emerging illnesses, before they have gained acceptance by the
medical community, have initially been discounted as being hysteria,
depression, somatoform disorders, etc. One hundred years ago, polio
was dismissed in just that fashion. When CFS gained notice in recent
times, many of its symptoms were correlated to depression, and many
un-read physicians today still believe that's what CFS is. Much recent
research, notably the finding by Demitrack that cortisol levels are
low in CFS patients whereas in depressed people they are high,
indicates that CFS is not depression. Other noted differences are that
CFS patients tend to overestimate their abilities, retain a strong
interest in life, and respond poorly to exercise, whereas the opposite
are typically observed in people who are depressed.
A politico-economic aspect of this issue is that health insurers have
an incentive to classify patients as having temporary illnesses that
can be treated cheaply and in a short time. Depression is considered
to be a short-term, treatable illness.
Another issue is that CFS patients can get "secondary depression" if
their lives have been disrupted because their illness has interfered
with their job or their social or family life. This indirect
consequence of the illness may be taken by some medical professionals
as indicating a cause rather than an effect of the observed symptoms.
See also question 2.04 above, regarding stress and psychology. Also,
the differences between CFS and other conditions, including
depression, is discussed in the Calabrese article. (See Appendix 2
about how to get this article's text by e-mail.)
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