Chronic fatigue syndrome

Abstract
The term chronic fatigue syndrome is relatively new. It first appeared in the 1988 proposal by the United States Centers for Disease Control2 to formalise a working case definition for symptoms that had been variously named and attributed to numerous causes for over two centuries. Through field testing, the case definition was revised and simplified in 1994.3 In essence, it classifies a constellation of prolonged and debilitating symptoms as worthy of medical attention and study (see box). Related case criteria were developed by consensus at Oxford in 1991.4 Neither the American nor the Oxford criteria assume the syndrome to be a …