Chronic fatigue syndrome A federal advisory committee has
recommended that the name of the condition be changed from
chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) to myalgic encephalomyelitis or
myalgic encephalopathy chronic fatigue syndrome (ME-CFS) to more
accurately characterize the complex nature of the disease.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is not a new disorder. In the
19th century the term neurasthenia, or nervous exhaustion, was
applied to symptoms resembling CFS. From the 1930s through the
1950s, outbreaks of disease marked by prolonged fatigue were
reported in the United States and many other countries.
Beginning in the early to mid-1980s, interest in chronic fatigue
syndrome was revived by reports in America and other countries
of various outbreaks of long-term debilitating fatigue. A
federal advisory committee has recommended that the Department
of Health and Human Services change the name of the condition
from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) to myalgic encephalomyelitis
or myalgic encephalopathy chronic fatigu