Pediatric myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome

Children are also afflicted with ME/CFS. "Children below the age of 8 or 9 do not have the symptom pattern of adolescents past puberty. If the onset of the disease occurs during adolescence, the most common time of onset, the pattern is similar to that of adults. Pediatric criteria have been developed." Children can be diagnosed at 3 months while adults are diagnosed at six months.

Recognized as a Pediatric disease
Pediatric ME/CFS was outlined in the Institute of Medicine report (IOMR). The Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association has produced 6 pages of easy to step through information based on the IOMR and includes additional resources.

Pediatric ME/CFS Diagnosis

Page titles
 * 1) Pediatric case definition/diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS
 * 2) Exclusionary conditions
 * 3) Differential diagnosis
 * 4) Pediatric ME/CFS Diagnosis
 * 5) More Resources
 * 6) References

Pediatric factsheets
For Healthcare Professionals, Parents and Education Professionals. CDC USA (2014)
 * Factsheets - Pediatric

Charities
Tymes Trust is a UK charity dedicated to helping parents and guardians understand ME/CFS in children and navigate social services, health care and the school system.
 * Pediatric ME, CFS, SEID for Families and their GPs (2016)

Notable studies

 * 2016, Comorbidities treated in primary care in children with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: A nationwide registry linkage study from Norway."'Conclusions: This large nationwide registry linkage study confirms that the clinical picture in CFS/ME is complex. Children with CFS/ME were frequently diagnosed with infections, supporting the hypothesis that infections may be involved in the causal pathway. The long time span often observed from the first diagnosis of weakness / general tiredness to the diagnosis of CFS/ME might indicate that the treatment of these patients is sometimes not optimal.'"
 * 2015, Less efficient and costly processes of frontal cortex in childhood chronic fatigue syndrome"'Abstract: The ability to divide one's attention deteriorates in patients with childhood chronic fatigue syndrome (CCFS). We conducted a study using a dual verbal task to assess allocation of attentional resources to two simultaneous activities (picking out vowels and reading for story comprehension) and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Patients exhibited a much larger area of activation, recruiting additional frontal areas. The right middle frontal gyrus (MFG), which is included in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, of CCFS patients was specifically activated in both the single and dual tasks; this activation level was positively correlated with motivation scores for the tasks and accuracy of story comprehension. In addition, in patients, the dorsal anterior cingulate gyrus (dACC) and left MFG were activated only in the dual task, and activation levels of the dACC and left MFG were positively associated with the motivation and fatigue scores, respectively. Patients with CCFS exhibited a wider area of activated frontal regions related to attentional resources in order to increase their poorer task performance with massive mental effort. This is likely to be less efficient and costly in terms of energy requirements. It seems to be related to the pathophysiology of patients with CCFS and to cause a vicious cycle of further increases in fatigue.'"

Learn more

 * Primer for family, friends and care providers