Development of new sensitivities

The development of new sensitivities which were not present before the illness or have worsened since is a common occurence in ME/CFS.

Symptom recognition

 * The International Consensus Criteria lists sensitivities to food, medications, odours or chemicals as an optional criteria for diagnosis, under the section C. Immune, gastro-intestinal and genitourinary Impairments.

Types of sensitivities

 * Food sensitivities
 * Medicine sensitivities
 * Chemical sensitivities
 * Odour sensitivities

Prevalence

 * In a 2001 Belgian study, 48.5% of patients meeting the Fukuda criteria and 54.8% of patients meeting the Holmes criteria, in a cohort of 2073 CFS patients, reported new sensitivities to food or drugs.