An article was published in the May edition of the Journal of Health Psychology that discusses differences in the onset of CFS in veterans and civilians.

The researchers compared 45 male veterans with CFS to 84 male civilians who satisfied identical case criteria. All were evaluated for fibromyalgia (FM), multiple chemical sensitivity and psychiatric conditions. The study found that in civilians, CFS  was more likely to present in a sudden flu-like manner than in veterans, and civilians also had Fibro (as well as the CFS) more often.

The researchers said:

“Different modes of fatigue onset in male Gulf War veterans versus male civilians raise the possibility that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) may not be a single disease entity.”…”[our] findings question the assumption that all patients with CFS suffer from the same underlying disorder.”

The possibility of subsets of CFS has been much discussed and will be the subject of a conference in London this year. Given the lack of a good case definition for CFS, there is a lot of confusion about when a symptom - chronic fatigue - becomes a diagnosis - CFS.

Reference: Ciccone DS, Weissman L, Natelson BH. Chronic fatigue syndrome in male gulf war veterans and civilians: a further test of the single syndrome hypothesis. J Health Psychol. 2008 May;13(4):529-36.