Two recent studies — one from investigators at Stanford a few weeks ago and another from a Japanese research team published earlier this year — have found that the brains of people with chronic fatigue syndrome differ from those of healthy people, strengthening the argument that serious physiological dysfunctions are at the root of the condition.
The most striking finding was that in people with the disorder, one neural tract in the white matter of the right hemisphere appeared to be abnormally shaped, as if the cablelike nerve structures had crisscrossed or changed in some other way. Furthermore, the most seriously ill patients exhibited the greatest levels of this abnormality.
In a statement that those with these baffling diseases will welcome, Dr. Leonard Jason, who studies the condition at DePaul University, said: “You’ve got two different groups that have independently said, ‘There’s something going on in the brain that is aberrant.’ I think you have a growing sense that this illness should be taken seriously.”
For more information: The New York Times Well Blog and The New York Times Health Guide