Greenberg D B
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston.
Psychosomatics. 1990 Spring;31(2):129-37. doi: 10.1016/S0033-3182(90)72185-8.
In the 1980s, patients suffering from unexplained fatigue and what seemed like a prolonged attack of acute mononucleosis were given the diagnosis of chronic mononucleosis or chronic infection with the Epstein-Barr virus. Although the diagnosis has great appeal, the Epstein-Barr virus does not cause the syndrome (CFS) of chronic fatigue, which has been renamed and redefined chronic fatigue syndrome to remove the inference that the virus is its cause. From a historical perspective, both syndromes represent the 1980s equivalent of neurasthenia, a disease of fatigue that influenced the development of psychiatric nosology. Because patients with depression and anxiety also have chronic fatigue and because most patients with CFS have an affective disorder, the assessment of organic causes of this syndrome requires careful psychiatric diagnosis and treatment. Defining chronic fatigue syndrome as a medical disorder may deprive patients of competent treatment of their affective disorder.
在20世纪80年代，患有不明原因疲劳以及似乎是急性单核细胞增多症长期发作的患者被诊断为慢性单核细胞增多症或爱泼斯坦-巴尔病毒慢性感染。尽管这个诊断很有吸引力，但爱泼斯坦-巴尔病毒并不会引发慢性疲劳综合征（CFS），该综合征已被重新命名和定义，以消除病毒是其病因的推断。从历史角度来看，这两种综合征相当于20世纪80年代的神经衰弱，一种影响精神疾病分类学发展的疲劳疾病。由于抑郁症和焦虑症患者也会出现慢性疲劳，且大多数慢性疲劳综合征患者都患有情感障碍，因此对该综合征的器质性病因进行评估需要仔细的精神科诊断和治疗。将慢性疲劳综合征定义为一种医学病症可能会使患者得不到对其情感障碍的有效治疗。
