Two Pediatric CFS Studies from the UK

Pediatric CFS Is the Focus of Two Recent CFS Studies

The vast majority of CFS research focuses on adults; however, earlier this year, two studies out of the United Kingdom explored different elements relating to children with CFS.

In the first study, research officers Guitta Saidi and Linda Haines of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health in London , set out to describe the characteristics of child and adolescent CFS patients being treated by general practitioners (GPs) in primary care settings and how GPs investigate and manage these patients. Noting that most studies on children with CFS have been done in tertiary care settings (larger facilities), little is known about how such cases are managed in smaller primary care settings.

What they found was that patient characteristic are comparable to those reported in tertiary care settings (73% girls; median age 12.9 years) and that GPs are diagnosing CFS within a short time and applying a wide range of referral and advice strategies. Promising results, given the skepticism sometimes faced by CFS patients from their doctors.

The most common advice consisted of setting activity goals, pacing, rest and graded exercise.

The second study, by psychiatrist Dr. Alison Sankey and a team of researchers, followed up with 28 young people between the ages of 7 and 17 who were diagnosed with CFS and treated by a pediatric/psychiatric service. This follow up occurred, on average, three years after initial treatment. By this time, most young people regarded themselves as fully recovered, however objective improvement was variable, and about one-third were still experiencing some disabling symptoms. More disturbing, the researchers also discovered that CFS had impacted the education and career plans of virtually all the young people, and over half experienced difficulty returning to school. The report highlights the need for early diagnosis and continuing pediatric support to reduce symptom persistence during what seems to be a very sensitive recovery period.

Perhaps the fairly quick diagnosis by GPs indicated in the first study will generate some improvement in CFS-specific challenges like those experienced by the youth in Sankey’s study. Certainly, both studies underscore the fact that CFS affects children and adolescents as well as adults, providing a unique set of obstacles to overcome at a very formative time of life.