Exclusion method

Dr. Buchwald acknowledges that there are physicians who are reluctant to recognize and diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome, although now this is much less common than some time ago. She also admits that it is difficult to diagnose. One of the reasons is that doctors very often hear from patients about severe fatigue. But only a few fall under the criteria of chronic fatigue syndrome developed by more than a dozen experts in conjunction with specialists from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta.
In accordance with the criteria developed, patients with chronic fatigue syndrome are people suffering from exhausting fatigue (or quickly tired), at least six months, whose performance decreased at least by half. At the same time, any mental illness, such as depression, which has similar symptoms, various infectious diseases, hormonal disorders, for example, associated with thyroid dysfunction, drug abuse, exposure to toxic substances, should be excluded (with the help of their doctors). They must have at least 8 of the following 11 symptoms constantly or again and again and again for six months or longer.
Symptoms of a cold or a mild febrile condition.
Soreness in the throat.
Swollen or painful lymph glands.
Unclear general muscle weakness.
Soreness in the muscles.
Strong fatigue within 24 hours after doing physical work.
Headaches, which differ from those that you experienced before.
Joint pain without swelling or redness.
Forgetfulness, excessive irritability, inability to concentrate attention or depression.
Sleep disorder.
Rapid appearance of symptoms within a few hours or days.
The disease is diagnosed if there are six of these symptoms plus a sore throat, swollen or painful knots on the neck or under the arms.