Persistent burnout theory of chronic fatigue syndrome
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Neurology, Psychiatry and Psychology
- Keywords
- CFS, chronic fatigue syndrome, stress, HPA axis, cortisol, burnout, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis
- Copyright
- © 2015 Jameson
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2015. Persistent burnout theory of chronic fatigue syndrome. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e860v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.860v1
Abstract
There is no agreement on the etiology of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and the main theories (behavioural and viral/immune) do not satisfactorily explain all findings. A growing body of evidence shows that CFS appears to be a dysfunction of the stress system—and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis in particular—as a result of chronic stress. CFS shares many similarities to occupational burnout, including similar symptoms, physiological abnormalities and triggers. After a review of the available evidence, I hypothesize that CFS is a state of persistent burnout that remains after the initial stressors have been removed. This persistence may be due to a combination of a dysregulation of the HPA axis and behavioural factors.
Author Comment
This is a revised and updated version of a hypothesis that was first published in October 2004 (http://www.mind-body-health.net/persistent_burnout_theory_2004.html).