Experts demand more support for chronic fatigue research

Experts from the universities of Brussels, Leuven, Ghent and Antwerp have written to the ministers of public health and science and innovation to demand more support for research on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which they say is still an underestimated and little-studied disorder.

According to the experts, 0.5 to 2.5% of the global population suffers from CFS. The disorder not only has physical consequences but also brings with it a high medical, economic and social cost. The psychological suffering is the highest of all psychological and medical disorders, they claim. Treatment options are currently undeveloped and fragmented, which gives a lot of patients the feeling that they are alone.

The group has requested that politicians support the installation of several chairs on CFS at the universities. This would, they said, enable multidisciplinary research to develop innovative treatment methods.