Daze of their lives
More than 10 per cent of Hongkongers may be suffering from a debilitating disorder for which there is no simple cure. Many will never recover from it, writes Richard Lord
Have you felt disabled by exhaustion for at least six months with no obvious medical reason? Have you also experienced bouts of weakness, pain, impaired memory or problems sleeping?
Some doctors may diagnose you as having chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), but others are sceptical that such a condition even exists.
Despite being recognised as a major public health problem since the late 1980s, the lack of uniformity of symptoms and causes among patients has complicated the diagnostic process and development of treatments.
"As family physicians in Hong Kong, we almost never diagnose CFS; it's more a label, a functional diagnosis, a description," says Dr Billy Chiu Chi-fai, a specialist in family medicine at Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital.
Instead, when a patient presents with the symptoms of CFS, he says, doctors will test for other conditions before, in most cases, diagnosing the symptoms as evidence of a psychosomatic disorder, anxiety, depression, a mood disorder, neuritis (inflammation of the nerves), insomnia or one of a number of other similar conditions.
In Hong Kong, it's estimated that 10.7 per cent of adults experience chronic fatigue syndrome. This was based on a study published in 2010 of 5,000 Chinese people aged 18 years or older, led by University of Hong Kong clinical psychologist Richard Fielding.