Critical Life Events, Infections, and Symptoms During the Year Preceding Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS): An Examination of CFS Patients and Subjects With a Nonspecific Life Crisis
Töres Theorell, MD,
Vanja Blomkvist, Dr Med Sci,
Gudrun Lindh, MD and
Birgitta Evengård, MD
From the National Institute for Psychosocial Factors and Health, Stockholm, Sweden (T.T., V.B.); Division for Psychosocial Factors and Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden (T.T.); and Department of Immunology, Pathology, Microbiology, and Infectious Diseases, Karolinska Institutet at Huddinge University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden (G.L., B.E.).

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Fig. 1. Mean VAS ratings during the 12 months preceding (112) and 12 months succeeding (1324) onset of CFS (upper line) and the corresponding crisis period in the control group (lower line) for (a) tiredness, (b) feeling of fever, (c) feeling of pain, (d) sadness, and (e) irritability.
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Fig. 2. Comparison of pre-CFS quarterly prevalence ratios; CFS/referents infections vs. negative life events. The specific life events have been introduced in Table 1, which also shows the 1 year prevalence (disregarding rating in negative, positive, or neutral) of each of them in the CFS group, the control group, and in the study of the general working population in Stockholm (10).
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Copyright © 1999 by the American Psychosomatic Society