Abstract
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is one of the most common chronic diseases in modern society and affects patients' quality of life to a certain extent. To date, the etiology and pathogenesis of CFS are still not completely clear. Various therapies have been developed, but there is still a lack of specific drugs or treatments. As a kind of adjuvant therapy, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has aroused widespread concern about the improvement of CFS. Although a large number of clinical randomized controlled trials have confirmed the therapeutic effect of TCM on CFS, the exact efficacy is still controversial. This article summarizes the clinical research methods and efficacy of TCM in the treatment of CFS over the past five years from the perspectives of syndrome differentiation, external treatment, and combination therapy.
Highlights
Since researchers led by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention coined the term Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), the history of the disease can be traced back to approximately 30 years ago [1]
There must be 8 secondary standard symptoms [16]. e IOM published a research report in February 2015 suggesting that the disease should be renamed “systemic exertion intolerance disease” (SEID) and proposed a new diagnostic criterion indicating that patients must have the following symptoms: (1) severe persistent fatigue that lasts for more than 6 months and cannot be relieved after rest; (2) discomfort that is significantly increased after exercise; and (3) unrefreshing sleep that cannot be eliminated after awakening
It is generally considered that CFS can be treated by comprehensive methods such as medicine, nutrition, exercise, or psychology [17, 18]
Summary
Since researchers led by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention coined the term Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), the history of the disease can be traced back to approximately 30 years ago [1]. CFS, or myositis encephalomyelitis (ME), is a multisystem chronic disease. It is a syndrome of debilitating diseases composed of fatigue, pain, cognitive impairment, and sleep disorders. Some early studies showed that the proportion of the UK and American population suffering from CFS is between 0.2% and 2.6% [5, 6]. In 2019, Unger et al [7] estimated that the prevalence rate in the Chinese CFS population was approximately 1%, which is basically consistent with the response data of epidemiological studies in Japan, Britain, and the United State
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