Abstract

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.

METHODS The 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.

RESULTS Those 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.

CONCLUSION A relation was found between cognitive impairment and functional disability which could not be explained entirely on the basis of psychiatric factors.