Cognitive dysfunction

Cognitive dysfunction is a constant struggle for most ME/CFS patients and they often describe it as "brain fog". It is also a symptom of fibromyalgia and patients refer to it as "fibro fog".

Cognitive dysfunction in ME/CFS can take many different forms. Cognitive issues commonly observed in ME/CFS include attention deficit, auditory sequencing problems, brain fog, concentration problems, difficulty comprehending social cues, dyscalculia, dyslexia, executive function problems, linguistics reversals, memory loss, multi-tasking problems, planning problems, receptive language problems, slowed thought, spatial disorientation, and word-finding problems.

Symptom recognition
Mandatory

Cognitive dysfunction is a mandatory symptom to diagnose ME/CFS with the Canadian Consensus Criteria (CCC). .

Optional

Cognitive dysfunction is an optional symptom in Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease (SEID) criteria and the International Consensus Criteria (ICC) which diagnoses Myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Diagnosis

 * Mild cognitive impairment (MCI)
 * Food For The Brain - Cognitive Function Test
 * Cognitive Dysfunction and “Brain Fog” in POTS

Notable studies

 * 2001, Neuropsychological functioning in chronic fatigue syndrome: a review. (Abstract)
 * 2006, Cognitive dysfunction relates to subjective report of mental fatigue in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (Full text)
 * 2015, Less efficient and costly processes of frontal cortex in childhood chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2016, Cognitive Dysfunction in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a Review of Recent Evidence (Abstract)

Possible causes
Mady Hornig has found evidence in the cerebral fluid of ME/CFS patients that may explain their cognitive dysfunction.

Learn more

 * 2015, Dr. Gudrun Lange Reviews Neuropsychological Testing for CFS and FM
 * 2016, Case Study: "Brain Fog" in CFS can be seen in qEEG/Loreta
 * 2018, Study Identifies the Types of Cognitive Dysfunction That Are Most Prevalent in Fibromyalgia