Relation between neuropsychological impairment and functional disability in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome
a University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA, b Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation,
West Orange, NJ, USA, c University of North Carolina,
Charlotte, NC,USA
Correspondence to: Dr John DeLuca, Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation, Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Research Laboratory, Research Department, 1199 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, New Jersey 07052, USA.
Received 2 April 1997 and in revised form 4 December 1997;
Accepted 9 December 1997
OBJECTIVES
To examine the relation between
neuropsychological impairment and functional disability in patients
with chronic fatigue syndrome, and determine whether the relation is
independent of psychiatric factors.
METHODSThe subjects were 53 patients with chronic
fatigue syndrome and 32 healthy controls who did not exercise
regularly. Subjects were administered a structured psychiatric
interview and completed questionnaires focusing on depression and
functional disability. They also completed a battery of standardised
neuropsychological tasks focusing on the cognitive domains that
patients with chronic fatigue syndrome experience as particularly
difficult: memory (verbal and visual), and attention/concentration. A
test score was defined as failing when it was 
2 SD below the mean
of the healthy controls after controlling for demographic factors.
RESULTSThose patients with chronic fatigue
syndrome with higher numbers of failing neuropsychological test scores
reported significantly more days of general inactivity in the past
month than those with fewer failing scores. This result remained
significant even after partialling out the contribution of the presence
of a comorbid axis I psychiatric episode and the overall level of
depressive symptomology. Patients with failing verbal memory scores
were particularly functionally disabled compared with those with
passing scores.
CONCLUSIONA relation was found between cognitive
impairment and functional disability which could not be explained
entirely on the basis of psychiatric factors.
© 1998 by Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
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