He Chronic Fatigue Syndrome It is a very difficult condition to diagnose since its symptoms are physical and psychological. Currently there is no evidence that allows to know with certainty that a person suffers from it.
Because of this difficulty, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), have established two criteria to try to guide doctors in their diagnosis and that they are: the First a unexplained fatigue which has a duration older than six months and in second place that the patient has four or more of the following symptoms: short-term concentration and memory problems, sore throat, swollen and painful lymph nodes, muscle pain, joint pain with absence of inflammation or redness, headache stronger or different from usual, having a restful sleep but get tired and there is exhaustion that lasts more than 24 hours after exercising.
If these symptoms are present, the medical professional will elaborate a detailed medical history of the patient that will include a physical examination and laboratory tests in order to rule out other possibilities.
Due to the increase in cases of this disease among adolescents, an investigation has been carried out in the Utrecht University Medical Center, in the Netherlands, which has shown that a cognitive behavioral therapeutic program (called FITNET: Fatigue In Teenagers on the Internet) through the Internet for young people with chronic fatigue syndrome is more effective than conventional treatment.
The study has been carried out in a group of adolescents between 12 and 18 years diagnosed with this syndrome, the results of the study reveal that after 6 months of treatment 63 percent of the adolescents who used the program recovered almost eight times more than those who received the usual treatment.
The researchers studied and treated 135 teenagers diagnosed for two years with chronic fatigue syndrome, of them 68 were treated with FITNET Y 67 with the usual treatment which includes in addition to treatment with individual exercises a cognitive-behavioral group therapy. To the 6 months, adolescents of the cognitive-behavioral therapy group on the Internet showed absence of severe fatigue and a normal physical state, compared to those who received conventional treatment.
The researchers explain how advantages of this online treatment that adolescents can access it at any time by being available on the Internet, which avoids face-to-face (which many young people are uncomfortable with) professionals and the inconveniences of appointments that make them miss school or work and travel to the doctor's office. They also say that reduce treatment time and costs of the same.
Chronic fatigue syndrome is one of those unknown diseases, although there is increasing awareness of it and that is why scientists are working to shed more light on it.
