Chronic fatigue syndrome and increased susceptibility to upper respiratory tract infections and illnesses

Smith, Andrew Paul ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8805-8028 and Thomas, Marie 2015. Chronic fatigue syndrome and increased susceptibility to upper respiratory tract infections and illnesses. Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior 3 (3) , pp. 156-163. 10.1080/21641846.2015.1033271

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Abstract

Background: Previous research has suggested that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) patients report more upper respiratory tract illnesses (URTIs) than controls. Aims: The present study aimed to replicate and extend this research. Method: A prospective study of the incidence of URTIs was conducted. This was similar to previous work involving diary studies but also included objective measures of illness severity (e.g. nasal secretion; sub-lingual temperature) and infection (virus isolation from nasal swabs and antibody changes). Fifty-seven patients with CFS, diagnosed according to the 1994 CDC criteria, were recruited randomly from a volunteer panel compiled of patients who had attended the Cardiff CFS outpatient clinic. A further 57 individuals without CFS were recruited from a general population research panel. Results: The results confirmed that CFS patients report more upper respiratory virus infections and the virological results showed that this was not due to a reporting bias but reflected greater susceptibility to infection. Conclusions: This increased susceptibility to infection in the CFS group can account for the increased reporting of URTIs found in this and previous studies.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	chronic fatigue syndrome, upper respiratory tract infections
Publisher:	Taylor and Francis
Funders:	The Linbury Trust
Date of Acceptance:	19 March 2015
Last Modified:	28 Oct 2022 08:58
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/72824

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