title: Cognitive deficits in chronic fatigue syndrome and their relationship to psychological status, symptomatology, and everyday functioning.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine cognitive deficits in people with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and their relationship to psychological status, CFS symptoms, and everyday functioning.
  
  
  METHODS
  The current study compared the cognitive performance (reaction time, attention, memory, motor functioning, verbal abilities, and visuospatial abilities) of a sample with CFS (n = 50) with that of a sample of healthy controls (n = 50), all of whom had demonstrated high levels of effort and an intention to perform well, and examined the extent to which psychological status, CFS symptoms, and everyday functioning were related to cognitive performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The CFS group showed impaired information processing speed (reaction time), relative to the controls, but comparable performance on tests of attention, memory, motor functioning, verbal ability, and visuospatial ability. Moreover, information processing speed was not related to psychiatric status, depression, anxiety, the number or severity of CFS symptoms, fatigue, sleep quality, or everyday functioning.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A slowing in information processing speed appears to be the main cognitive deficit seen in persons with CFS whose performance on effort tests is not compromised. Importantly, this slowing does not appear to be the consequence of other CFS-related variables, such as depression and fatigue, or motor speed.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: Susan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Cockshell
authors.forename: Jane L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Mathias
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D015673:Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012893:Sleep Wake Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D063189:Symptom Assessment