ABSTRACT
A person’s emotional or psychological state may make a contribution to a number of physical illnesses and also, it seems, may affect progress in the case of some clearly physiological disorders, such as pneumonia and appendicitis. Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)/myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is a newly recognized and diagnosed condition where there is severe physical and mental fatigue with no explanatory physiological or mental illness. However, adolescents with CFS/ME are usually treated through paediatric or adolescent medical services rather than through child and adolescent mental health. In adolescents, the main focus of treatment is on physical rehabilitation and gradual increase in physical activity, rather than on any possible psychological component to the illness. A psychoanalytic view of treatment may involve working with the patient and family to find other manageable and functional routes, such as communication through talking, for the expression of the previously inexpressible.
