Anxiety

From MEpedia, a crowd-sourced encyclopedia of ME and CFS science and history
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

Anxiety is a general term for several disorders that cause nervousness, fear, apprehension, worrying and unease. A sudden surge of overwhelming anxiety and fear is called a panic attack.

Anxiety symptoms occur with ME/CFS, but their origin tends to be from physiologic problems with the autonomic nervous system, sensory integration, blood flow or blood volume as oppose to emotional or psychiatric factors.[1]

In Dr. David Bell's words: "It is true that many persons with CFS experience anxiety. But because CFS patients tend not to have obvious, diagnosable psychiatric illnesses, I suspect that when panic occurs in CFS patients, the cause is physiological, not psychiatric. Whatever else this disease does to the human brain, it includes agitation in its repertoire."[2]

Some anxiety symptoms in those living with ME/CFS may stem from other factors often encountered by patients, such as feeling ‘delegitimized’ by the medical community,[3] poor prognosis, and loss of income, livelihood, and relationships.

Presentation[edit | edit source]

Prevalence[edit | edit source]

Symptom recognition[edit | edit source]

Anxiety is a potential symptom of Long COVID in the World Health Organization's definition.[5]

Notable studies[edit | edit source]

  • Anxiety and depression in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME): Examining the incidence of health anxiety in CFS/ME[3] (Abstract)

Possible causes[edit | edit source]

Potential treatments[edit | edit source]

Learn more[edit | edit source]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. Johnson, Cort (December 10, 2016). "The Anxiety Question in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia: Is the Autonomic Nervous System to Blame?". Health Rising. Retrieved February 18, 2019.
  2. Bell, David (August 30, 2000). Faces of CFS: case studies of chronic fatigue syndrome, (print). ISBN 978-0970770202.
  3. 3.0 3.1 Daniels, J; Brigden, A; Kacorova, A (2017), "Anxiety and depression in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME): Examining the incidence of health anxiety in CFS/ME", Psychol Psychother, 90 (3): 502–509, doi:10.1111/papt.12118
  4. Berne, Katrina (December 1, 1995). Running on Empty: The Complete Guide to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFIDS) (2nd ed.). Hunter House. p. 60. ISBN 978-0897931915.
  5. Soriano, Joan B.; Allan, Maya; Alsokhn, Carine; Alwan, Nisreen A.; Askie, Lisa; Davis, Hannah E.; Diaz, Janet V.; Dua, Tarun; de Groote, Wouter; Jakob, Robert; Lado, Marta; Marshall, John; Murthy, Srin; Preller, Jacobus; Relan, Pryanka; Schiess, Nicoline; Seahwag, Archana (October 6, 2021), A clinical case definition of post COVID-19 condition by a Delphi consensus, World Health Organization (WHO) clinical case definition working group on post COVID-19 condition, World Health Organization

{