GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER IN CHRONIC-FATIGUE-SYNDROME

A structured psychiatric interview, forming part of a global psychopat hological approach, revealed higher prevalence rates of current and li fetime psychiatric disorders and a higher degree of psychiatric comorb idity in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) than in a medica l control group. In contrast to previous studies, a very high prevalen ce of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) was found in CFS, characteriz ed by an early onset and a high rate of psychiatric comorbidity. It is postulated that GAD represents a susceptibility factor for the develo pment of CFS. A significantly higher prevalence was also observed for the somatization disorder (SD) in the CFS group. Apart from a higher f emale-to-male ratio in fibromyalgia, no marked differences were observ ed in sociodemographic or illness-related features, or in psychiatric morbidity, between CFS patients with and without fibromyalgia. CFS pat ients with SD have a longer illness duration and a higher rate of psyc hiatric comorbidity. These findings are consistent with the suggestion of Hickie et al. (1) that chronic fatigued subjects with SD should be distinguished from subjects with CFS.