Young people with ME/CFS are thought to have better rates of improvement or recovery than adults – see the RCPCH guideline of 2004 – and a report from Oslo University Hospital, Norway has provided further support for this belief.
Clinicians in the Paediatric Outpatient Clinic, who had completed a study of adolescents with ME/ CFS in 2009, followed up 38 of their cases, focusing on any changes in clinical symptoms and autonomic cardiovascular control at a second visit about 8 months after the first. At the second visit, patients reported significant improvements in fatigue severity, muscular pain, concentration and postexertional malaise. Furthermore, their baseline heart rate, blood pressure and a variety of cardiovascular measurements had significantly improved.
Thus, the majority of adolescents with ME/CFS experienced improvements during a relatively short followup, a finding that gives some hope to families coping with a youngster with the illness.
Reference: Adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome; a follow-up study displays concurrent improvement of circulatory abnormalities and clinical symptoms.Sulheim et al. BioPsychoSocial Medicine 2012; 6: 10.
