Children facing trauma may develop chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) in their adulthood, according to a study by researchers at Emory University School of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

 

CFS is diagnosed when patients have experienced extreme fatigue for at least six months. Researchers do not know the causes of the condition, which appears to affect about 2.5 percent of the American adults. The most common symptoms are muscle and joint pain.

 

The study involved 113 people with CFS and 124 people who did not have the condition. They were asked about their childhood experiences, whether they were sexually or emotionally abused or physically and emotionally neglected.

 

The study found that 66 people with CFS suffered moderate to severe trauma as children compared with 29 in the control group. However, not all children facing traumas developed CFS as adults, the study showed. And still, people who experienced childhood trauma were six more likely to develop CFS, compared with their non-traumatized counterparts.

 

The researchers also tested for saliva levels of the hormone cortisol. It is a known fact that low levels of the hormone can indicate reduced function of the body’s neuroendocrine stress response system.

 

“The study indicates that low levels may actually reflect a marker for the risk of developing CFS rather than being a sign of the syndrome itself. When looking at CFS cases with and without histories of childhood trauma, only those with childhood trauma had the classic low cortisol levels often seen in CFS cases,” said lead author Christine Heim, of Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia.