Abstract
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disabling disease with unknown etiology. There is accumulating evidence of altered cardiovascular autonomic responses to different somatic stressors, in particular orthostatic stress, whereas autonomic responses to mental stress remain to be investigated. In this study, we explored cardiovascular autonomic responses to a simple mental stress test in CFS patients and healthy controls.A consecutive sample of 13 patients with CFS, aged 12 to 18 years, and a volunteer sample of 53 healthy control subjects of equal age and gender distribution were included. Blood pressure, heart rate and acral skin blood flow were continuously recorded during an arithmetic exercise.At baseline, heart rate was significantly higher among CFS patients than controls (p = 0.02). During the arithmetic exercise, however, there were no significant differences in the responses between the two groups.In conclusion, CFS patients have unaltered autonomic responses to simple mental stress as compared to healthy control subjects.
Highlights
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disabling disease with unknown etiology
We required 6 months of chronic or relapsing fatigue, severely affecting daily activities; the fatigue should not be explained by any concurrent condition, it should be new or definite in onset, it should not be related to ongoing exertions, and it should not be alleviated by rest
During the first part of mental exercise, heart rate (HR), mean blood pressure (MBP) and DBP tended to increase less in patients than in controls; the differences between the two groups did not reach statistical significance
Summary
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disabling disease with unknown etiology. There is accumulating evidence of altered cardiovascular autonomic responses to different somatic stressors, in particular orthostatic stress, whereas autonomic responses to mental stress remain to be investigated. Cardiovascular autonomic responses to mental stressors have scarcely been explored in this patient group, despite several reports of attention problems and other specific cognitive impairments [5]. The aim of this study was to explore cardiovascular autonomic responses to an isolated mental stress test in adolescents with CFS.
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