Excessive irritability

Prevalence

 * Katrina Berne reports a prevalence of 70-90% for mood swings, excessive irritability, and overreaction in people with chronic fatigue syndrome.

Symptom recognition

 * In the Holmes criteria, excessive irritability is an optional criteria for diagnosis, under the section Minor Symptom Criteria - Neuropsychologic Complaints.

Potential treatments
Severe irritability is a common symptom in autism, and the main treatment for this is atypical anti-psychotic drugs such as amisulpride (Solian), risperidone (Risperdal) or aripiprazole (Abilify). Very low dose amisulpride has also been shown to reduce the fatigue and bodily symptoms of ME/CFS. N-acetyl-cysteine can help the irritability in autism, but the research showed this is not quite as effective as atypical anti-psychotics.

Learn more

 * Amisulpride — A Multipurpose Drug for ME/CFS