Neuroendocrine system

The neuroendocrine system.

Stress and the HPA axis
Stress can refer to emotional (psychological) stress]] or physical stress, e.g. a tension or pulling on a part of the body.

Differential diagnoses
The following endocrine disorders are differential diagnosis that may need to be investigated before a diagnosis of ME is made:
 * endocrine gland infections
 * Addison's disease, also known as adrenal failure
 * hypothyroidism
 * hyperthyroidism
 * Cushing's Syndrome, a metabolic disorder

Symptom recognition
The International Consensus Criteria for myalgic encephalomyelitis recognizes loss of thermostatic stability and intolerance of extremes of temperature as neuroendocrine symptoms involving the autonomic nervous system (ANS).

Treatment
The clinicians' primer for the International Consensus Criteria for ME suggests that galangtamine and melatonin may improve HPA axis symptoms, and vitamin C has a role in maintaining healthy adrenal glands.

Notable studies

 * 1995, Contrasting neuroendocrine responses in depression and chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2003, The neuroendocrinology of chronic fatigue syndrome


 * 2004, Neuroendocrine Aspects of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
 * 2006, Combinations of single nucleotide polymorphisms in neuroendocrine effector receptor genes predict chronic fatigue syndrome


 * 2007, Chronic fatigue syndrome: inflammation, immune function, and neuroendocrine interactions


 * 2008, Neuroendocrine and immune network re-modeling in chronic fatigue syndrome: an exploratory analysis


 * 2014, Main neuroendocrine features, diagnosis and therapeutic possibilities in the chronic fatigue syndrome, an underdiagnosed entity


 * 2021, The immune-neuroendocrine system in COVID-19, advanced age and rheumatic diseases (Full text)