According to an article in The New York Times, additional research suggests that the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome may be a virus.
In a study published in the fall of 2009, evidence was presented suggesting chronic fatigue syndrome may be due to a retrovirus. A retrovirus uses a cell's reproductive machinery to make copies of itself, as occurs with the familiar retrovirus called HIV. Now, a new study found the MRV-related virus in the blood cells of 32 out of 37 of those afflicted with chronic fatigue, while not finding it as frequently in controls who were not.
This likely represents an important piece of a puzzle that has yet to be solved and hopefully marks an opportunity to begin developing treatment options for this debilitating condition.
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I was one of those found to be chronically infected with XMRV, and to have a substantial loss of delta wave activity in my brain, found after an EEG scan, coupled with a blood test that revealed low growth hormone levels, this being consistent with lack of deep sleep. In addition, a low white blood cell/lymphocyte count is also consistent with a viral infection. It would also appear that infection with XMRV may be difficult for the immune system to tackle, thereby causing a chronically activated immune system, where the symptoms of fatigue, weakness, sleep disorders, etc., become inevitable. The other possibility is that the immune system, in those with this chronic infection is defective, therefore, the same result, an inability to remove the infection.
The good news is that some existing antiviral drugs look as if they are effective, particularly Raltegravir, albeit taking months of use to fully block the pathogen. In addition, the lack of deep sleep, and day time sleepiness is now being treated in the same way as Narcolepsy, with promising results, reference the drug Xyrem for sleep, and Modafinil for day time sleepiness. In fact, Narcolepsy therapy is now know to provide rapid improvement through restoring the missing deep sleep cycle, and removing the dreadful consequential day time sleepiness.