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Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a mysterious condition that usually baffles doctors. Nobody is sure why it starts, how to treat it, or to even guess its course.
A new study has discovered one part of the puzzle, and it all goes back to our childhood. Researchers have found that people are up to eight times more likely to suffer from CFS if they experienced some trauma – such as sexual, emotional or physical abuse, or neglect, or depression – when they were children.
When they reviewed the history of 43 CFS sufferers compared with 60 healthy adults, they found that unhappy experiences in childhood was a significant marker for adult CFS.
The likelihood was graded by the severity of the trauma, and those whose childhood experiences were less traumatic had a three-fold chance of developing CFS, while those who were badly scarred by their experiences were eight times more likely to suffer chronic fatigue.
(Source: Archives of General Psychiatry, 2006; 63: 1258-66).
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