Marshall P S, Forstot M, Callies A, Peterson P K, Schenck C H
Department of Psychiatry, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA.
Psychosom Med. 1997 Jan-Feb;59(1):58-66. doi: 10.1097/00006842-199701000-00008.
Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) commonly report problems with attention, memory, learning, and speed of cognitive processing. This study attempted to evaluate these complaints using objective test criteria.
A test battery composed of six tests assessing these cognitive functions was given on two consecutive days. Twenty CFS patients were compared with 20 healthy control subjects and 14 patients with a history of major depression or dysthymia matched by age, intelligence, education level, and sex.
Compared with control subjects, CFS patients consistently scored lower on tests in which motor and cognitive processing speeds were a critical factor, eg, reaction-time tasks. They also had more difficulty on working-memory tests in which rapid cognitive processing speed is also an important factor. The effort made on the first day of testing did not result in a decline in cognitive function on the following day. CFS patients did not qualify as having affective disorder by several different diagnostic criteria. Nonetheless, CFS patients' test performances did not differ from patients with a history of major depression or dysthymia.
It is concluded that, although CFS and major depression and dysthymia have distinct clinical features, these disorders have slowed motor and cognitive processing speed in common.
慢性疲劳综合征（CFS）患者常报告存在注意力、记忆力、学习能力及认知加工速度方面的问题。本研究试图运用客观测试标准对这些主诉进行评估。
连续两天进行由六项评估这些认知功能的测试组成的测试组。将20名CFS患者与20名健康对照者以及14名有重度抑郁或心境恶劣病史且在年龄、智力、教育水平和性别上相匹配的患者进行比较。
与对照者相比，CFS患者在运动和认知加工速度为关键因素的测试（如反应时间任务）中得分始终较低。他们在工作记忆测试中也有更多困难，而快速认知加工速度在该测试中也是一个重要因素。测试第一天所付出的努力并未导致次日认知功能下降。根据几种不同的诊断标准，CFS患者不符合情感障碍的诊断。尽管如此，CFS患者的测试表现与有重度抑郁或心境恶劣病史的患者并无差异。
得出的结论是，尽管CFS与重度抑郁和心境恶劣有不同的临床特征，但这些病症都存在运动和认知加工速度减慢的共性。
