Excerpt:
Fatigue is a universal symptom, occurring in all individuals after prolonged exertion or lack of sleep. However, when fatigue is persistently present, without adequate environmental or medical explanation, fatigue has been recognised as the hallmark of a frequent and enigmatic clinical syndrome. Although difficult to precisely define and measure, fatigue is a pervasive sense of tiredness or lack of energy, that is not related exclusively to exertion. Fatigue may be appreciated centrally in terms of concentration, memory and motivation, or appreciated peripherally, where symptoms are often referred to the muscles. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a term that was chosen and defined by Holmes et al., in 1988 to describe a combination of non-specific symptoms including profound fatigue, weakness, malaise and cognitive impairment with a remarkable lack of objective physical or laboratory abnormalities (1).
This syndrome had previously been known as “Chronic Epstein-Barr Virus Syndrome” and “Chronic Mononucleosis”. The terminology “CFS” was widely accepted because it implies no aetiology or specific pathological process. Several definitions of CFS have been developed, primarily to standardise research (2,3). It was not intended that they be used for clinical diagnosis. The Canadian Clinical Working Case Definition of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was developed in response to an increasing need for such a definition for practising clinicians (4). It is the first definition that was created primarily to aid in clinical diagnosis, by encompassing many of the positive signs and symptoms of CFS, in order that it can be recognised as a distinct entity and distinguished from other clinical syndromes that have overlapping symptoms.
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Source: Torpy BDJ, Saranapala M. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. In: De Groot LJ, Chrousos G, Dungan K, Feingold KR, Grossman A, Hershman JM, Koch C, Korbonits M, McLachlan R, New M, Purnell J, Rebar R,Singer F, Vinik A, editors. Endotext [Internet]. South Dartmouth (MA): MDText.com, Inc.; 2000-. 2014 Nov 20. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279099/ (Full article)