Does post-infectious chronic fatigue exist?
Last reviewed: 07.06.2024
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After an infectious disease, a person often can not "recover" for a long time: weakness, fatigue, apathy. Why does this happen, and where is the relationship? Scientists have found that infection imprints on the nervous system, which even after recovery continues to control the body, putting it in economy mode to counteract the already cured disease.
It has long been thought that chronic fatigue syndrome is a "hodge-podge" concept that has nothing to do with a real pathologic process. In fact, such a syndrome exists. Having had an infection, a person feels unmotivated fatigued, even in the absence of a serious load. Additional symptoms may include impaired concentration and memory, joint and muscle pain, sleep disorders, headaches, dizziness, and so on. Some specialists call this syndrome myalgic encephalomyelitis, although there is still debate about the inflammatory or non-inflammatory origin of chronic fatigue.
Scientists recently completed an experiment that they began eight years ago. The first stage of the project consisted of interviewing more than 200 people about the symptoms of chronic fatigue. At first, the researchers even suggested the possibility that such a syndrome could be caused by a specific virus, but then this theory was not confirmed.
Scientists have done a lot of work, looking for people who had persistent fatigue after an infectious disease. Such participants were found 27: some of them had additional respiratory disorders, as well as myositis, and even tumor processes. After careful selection, it was decided to keep for the experiment only 17 people who did not have additional pathologies that could give the symptom of fatigue.
The participants had to undergo a lot of tests and all sorts of tests: everything was within normal limits. Problems were discovered only after a brain imaging study: the areas responsible for motor skills were inhibited in people with chronic fatigue syndrome.
It is known that from the moment the infectious process starts, the brain triggers an energy-saving mechanism in the body, which is required for a more active fight against the pathogen. The appearance of the syndrome after recovery can be explained by the fact that the brain continues to believe that the disease has not yet receded, and the body should not exert itself "to the full".
Background studies only confirmed the conclusions of scientists: after infection, the autonomous nervous system still works in a special mode for some time, and T-lymphocytes remain ready to rapidly attack the pathogen. In this situation, the appearance of chronic fatigue syndrome is due to the specifics of immunity.
The full paper on the study is published in the journal Nature communications