Depression and chronic fatigue
Is depression related to chronic fatigue?
In some individuals, depression causes chronic fatigue. When depression is treated, chronic fatigue disappears. In other cases, depression triggers an unknown mechanism in the body which leads to depression. In such cases, chronic fatigue does not cease when depression resolves. Finally, there is a third group of individuals who never experience depression in their life but feel constantly tired all the time.
Chronic fatigue is one the symptoms of depression. Chronic fatigue can be defined as a feeling of tiredness which lasts for a long period of time. People who suffer from depression feel tired all the time. Their fatigue prevents them from day to day activities and from discharging their responsibilities.
However, chronic fatigue alone does not mean that a person has depression. Chronic fatigue can, and usually does, present as a symptom of depression, but just because a person experiences chronic fatigue does not mean he/she has depression.
Hence, it would safe to say that although chronic fatigue presents as a symptom of depression, depression does not necessarily cause of chronic fatigue. Chronic fatigue persists in some patients even after their depression has been treated. In other patients, fatigue disappears.
If chronic fatigue disappears after depression has been treated, then the fatigue was a direct result of depression. However, if it does not resolve, then the person is diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and depression was not the cause.
Researchers do not know what causes chronic fatigue syndrome. Although, some people develop the syndrome after an episode of severe depression, researchers have not termed depression the cause of the syndrome because chronic fatigue syndrome persists after depression ceases. The fact that a perfectly normal individual can develop chronic fatigue after an episode of depression and then continue to experience chronic fatigue after his/her depression resolves, suggests that depression triggered something in the body of the person which was non active. Researchers have yet to identify that “something (1).”
Additionally, as mentioned earlier, a person may experience chronic fatigue without being depressed. Some people have never experienced depression in their life, but feel tired all the time.
In conclusion, depression can be the cause of chronic fatigue. If chronic fatigue resolves after depression ceases, then depression was the direct cause of chronic fatigue. In other cases, depression triggers unknown mechanisms in the body which cause chronic fatigue to develop which does not resolve after depression is treated. Finally, there are cases where a person has never experienced depression in his life but feels constantly tired all the time.
Source(s):
- Chronic fatigue syndrome, University of Maryland Medical Center, 2007, retrieved 7 March 2008.