Cognitive dysfunction

Cognitive dysfunction is a constant struggle for most ME/CFS patients and they often describe it as "brain 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
OI is a well documented symptom in Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease (SEID), Canadian Consensus Criteria (CCC), and the International Consensus Criteria (ICC) for diagnosing SEID, ME/CFS, or Myalgic encephalomyelitis.

Notable studies

 * 2016, Cognitive Dysfunction in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: a Review of Recent Evidence (Abstract)
 * 2015, Less efficient and costly processes of frontal cortex in childhood chronic fatigue syndrome https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4589845/ (Full Text)]
 * 2006, Cognitive dysfunction relates to subjective report of mental fatigue in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (Full text)
 * 2001,

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