Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Chronic musculoskeletal pain in patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome: A systematic review

Chronic musculoskeletal pain in patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome: A systematic review Background: In addition to debilitating fatigue the majority of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) experience chronic widespread pain. Aims: Conducting a systematic review to critically assess the existing knowledge on chronic pain in CFS. We focussed on the definition, the prevalence and incidence, the aetiology, the relevance and the therapy strategy for chronic musculoskeletal pain and post‐exertional pain in CFS. Methods: To identify relevant articles, we searched eight medical search engines. The search terms “chronic fatigue syndrome” AND “pain”, “nociception”, “arthralgia” and “myalgia”, were used to identify articles concerning pain in CFS. Included articles were reviewed by two blinded researchers. Results: Twenty‐five articles and two abstract were identified and selected for further appraisal. Only 11 search results focussed on musculoskeletal pain in CFS patients. Regarding the standardized review of the articles, a 96% agreement between the researchers was observed. There is no consensus in defining chronic widespread pain in CFS, and although there is little or no strong proof for the exact prevalence, chronic pain is strongly disabling in CFS. Aetiological theories are proposed (sleep abnormalities, tryptophan, parovirus‐B, hormonal and brain abnormalities and central sensitisation) and a reduction of pain threshold after exercise has been shown. Furthermore depression seemed not related to pain in CFS and a staphylococcus toxoid vaccine caused no significant pain reduction. Conclusions: The results from the systematic review highlight the clinical importance of chronic pain in CFS, but only few studies addressing the aetiology or treatment of chronic pain in CFS are currently available. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png European Journal of Pain Wiley

Chronic musculoskeletal pain in patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome: A systematic review

Meeus, Mira; Nijs, Jo; Meirleir, Kenny
European Journal of Pain , Volume 11 (4) – May 1, 2007
Download PDF
10 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/chronic-musculoskeletal-pain-in-patients-with-the-chronic-fatigue-o8TwNJEcB0

References (83)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
2007 European Federation of Chapters of the International Association for the Study of Pain
ISSN
1090-3801
eISSN
1532-2149
DOI
10.1016/j.ejpain.2006.06.005
pmid
16843021
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Background: In addition to debilitating fatigue the majority of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) experience chronic widespread pain. Aims: Conducting a systematic review to critically assess the existing knowledge on chronic pain in CFS. We focussed on the definition, the prevalence and incidence, the aetiology, the relevance and the therapy strategy for chronic musculoskeletal pain and post‐exertional pain in CFS. Methods: To identify relevant articles, we searched eight medical search engines. The search terms “chronic fatigue syndrome” AND “pain”, “nociception”, “arthralgia” and “myalgia”, were used to identify articles concerning pain in CFS. Included articles were reviewed by two blinded researchers. Results: Twenty‐five articles and two abstract were identified and selected for further appraisal. Only 11 search results focussed on musculoskeletal pain in CFS patients. Regarding the standardized review of the articles, a 96% agreement between the researchers was observed. There is no consensus in defining chronic widespread pain in CFS, and although there is little or no strong proof for the exact prevalence, chronic pain is strongly disabling in CFS. Aetiological theories are proposed (sleep abnormalities, tryptophan, parovirus‐B, hormonal and brain abnormalities and central sensitisation) and a reduction of pain threshold after exercise has been shown. Furthermore depression seemed not related to pain in CFS and a staphylococcus toxoid vaccine caused no significant pain reduction. Conclusions: The results from the systematic review highlight the clinical importance of chronic pain in CFS, but only few studies addressing the aetiology or treatment of chronic pain in CFS are currently available.

Journal

European Journal of Pain – Wiley

Published: May 1, 2007

There are no references for this article.