Dickson en kollega´s hebben de taalvaardigheid (voorlezen), visuokonstruele vaardigheden (een figuur uit het hoofd natekenen), de koncentratie en het geheugen

van ME/CVS-patiënten vergeleken met

die van gezonde mensen en mensen met auto-immuun schildklierziekte.

Mensen met ME-CVS scoorden lager (zie onder) dan gezonde mensen als het gaat om

korte en middellange termijn-geheugen en visuokonstruele vaardigheden (natekenen).

Als het gaat om aandacht/koncentratie moeten ME/CVS-patiënten het ook afleggen tegen met auto-immuun schildklierziekte-patiënten.

De onderzoekers stelden tevens vast dat angst en depressie een rol spelen bij ME/CVS.

De onderzoekers stellen dat alle neurokognitieve problemen van ME/CVS-patiënten

primair veroorzaakt worden door/terug te brengen zijn tot koncentratieproblemen.

Tenslotte stelde de onderzoeksgroep van Dickson en vakgenoten vast dat

angst en depressie de neurokognitieve problemen niet beïnvloeden.

Anders gesteld, geheugen- en koncentratieproblemen staan los van angst en depressie.

Tot slot nog enkele citaten:

This contradicts the findings of previous authors who have claimed that cognitive complaints in CFS are specifically secondary to depressed or anxious mood

(Smith, 1991; Grafman et al. 1993; McDonald et al. 1993).

These results suggest that the core neuropsychological deficit in CFS is attentional,

and that other cognitive deficits that have been reported may be secondary to this.

Given these qualitative findings, it is perhaps not surprising that

the CFS group in our study had lower overall QoL than the AITD group.

The AITD group were receiving treatment for their condition

that helped them to manage the physical symptomatology of their condition.

This was not true for the CFS group,

many of whom were receiving no treatment for the physical symptoms of their condition.

... proposal by Richman et al. (2002) that Western medicines failure

to identify a viral aetiology for CFS

has promoted a paradigmatic shift in research perspectives;

it is possible that this shift underlies the tendency of health professionals

to focus on sociocultural and psychiatric explanations for CFS

(Ware, 1992; Cooper, 1997; Chaudhuri & Behan, 2004; Dickson et al. 2007).

Neuropsychological functioning, illness perception, mood and quality of life in chronic fatigue syndrome, autoimmune thyroid disease and healthy participants.

Psychol Med. 2009 Jan 15:1-10. [Epub ahead of print]

Dickson A, Toft A, O'Carroll RE.

Background:

This study attempted to longitudinally investigate

neuropsychological function, illness representations,

self-esteem, mood and quality of life (QoL)

in individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)

and compared them with both

healthy participants and

a clinical comparison group of individuals with autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD).

Method:

Neuropsychological evaluation was administered at two time points,

five weeks apart.

Twenty-one individuals with CFS,

20 individuals with AITD and

21 healthy participants

were matched for

age, pre-morbid intelligence, education level and socio-economic status (SES).

All groups also completed measures of

illness perceptions, mood, self-esteem and QoL

at both time points.

Results:

The CFS group showed

significantly greater impairment on measures of

immediate and delayed memory, attention and visuo-constructional ability,

and reported significantly higher levels of

anxiety and depression.

After controlling for the effects of mood,

the CFS group still demonstrated significant impairment in attention.

The CFS group also reported significantly lower self-reported QoL

than the AITD and healthy participants.

In terms of illness perceptions,

the AITD group believed

that their condition would last longer,

that they had more treatment control over their condition,

and reported less concern than the CFS group.

Conclusions:

These results suggest that

the primary cognitive impairment in CFS is attention

and that this is not secondary to affective status.

The lower treatment control perceptions

and greater illness concerns

that CFS patients report

may be causally related to their affective status.

PMID: 19144216 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19144216