Research abstract

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a physical and cognitive disabling illness, characterised by severe fatigue and a range of physiological symptoms that primarily affects women.

The immense variation in clinical presentation suggests differences in severity based on symptomology, physical and cognitive functional capacities.

In this review paper, we examined a number of severity scales used in assessing severity of patients with CFS/ME and the clinical aspects of CFS/ME severity subgroups. The use of severity scales may be important in CFS/ME as it permits the establishment of subgroups which may improve accuracy in both clinical and research settings.

Severity Scales for Use in Primary Health Care to Assess Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, by
SL Hardcastle, EW Brenu, S Johnston, D Staines, S Marshall-Gradisnik in Health Care Women Int. 2014 Oct 14:0. [Epub ahead of print]