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Chronic fatigue research lines
The scientific interest in chronic fatigue syndrome among medical researchers has risen considerably. In the present times there are impetuous needs for finding the cause of the chronic fatigue, the able to treat CFS and the standard way to describe CFS in order to compare easier research results.
CFS CRITERIA
In the late 1980s, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) brought together a group of CFS experts to establish symptom and physical criteria (the first case definition) for evaluating CFS study patients. Today, despite the existence of case definitions, the causes of CFS remain essentially unknown, and the only way to make the diagnosis is to rule out other causes of the same .
CFS CAUSES
Most of the CFS specialists are intrigued by the unknown cause and are convinced that finding it out could save thousands of sufferers. Few of more prominent studies on-going now are presented below:
- Dr. Mark Demitrack (U. Michigan) and Dr. Stephen Straus (NIH) are studying the dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis as a possible explanation for CFS;
- prof. Robert Suhadolnik (Temple U., Philadelphia) is exploring a possible bio-marker for CFS found in patients' blood and Drs. Hugh Dunstan and Timothy Roberts (U. Newcastle, Australia) are researching a possible biological marker found in urine;
- Drs. Andrew Lloyd, Ian Hickie, Denis Wakefield and Andrew Wilson (Sydney, Australia) are exploring many aspect of CFS;
- Dr. W. John Martin (U. S. Calif.) is studying the "Stealth" virus and Dr. Michael Holmes (U. Otago) is researching another virus-like particle;
- Drs. Nancy Klimas, Roberto Patarca (of U. Miami) and Jay Levy (UCSF) are investigating immunological abnormalities;
- Drs. Paul Cheney, Charles Lapp and Jay Goldstein are studying various treatments;
- The CDC team led by Drs. Keiji Fukuda and William Reeves are undertaking prevalence studies in the USA.
Researchers are focusing now on doing more long-term studies with CFS patients, for observing changes in CFS symptoms over short/long time periods. Some studies continue to investigate possibilities of neuroendocrine dysfunction, viruses, environmental toxins, genetic predisposition, or a combination of these, possible viral causes, other herpes viruses, enteroviruses, and retroviruses. Co-factors (such as genetic predisposition, stress, environment, gender, age, and prior illness) appear to play an important role in the development and course of the illness.
TREATMENT
After finding the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, looking for a becomes a priority. Some researchers believe that women may experience pain differently than men, as well as different reactions to drugs. Testing medicines are being analyzed and tried in specialized clinics. Until finding the cure, doctors will continue to treat CFS symptoms, especially for easing the pain. | 
