Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry logoLink to Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
. 1990 Mar;53(3):247–253. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.53.3.247

Sensory and cognitive event-related potentials in myalgic encephalomyelitis.

D Prasher 1, A Smith 1, L Findley 1
PMCID: PMC1014138  PMID: 2324756

Abstract

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) is a form of post viral fatigue syndrome resulting in myalgia and fluctuating fatiguability. Symptoms reflecting central nervous system dysfunction are common and include muscle weakness, headache, sensory disturbances, poor short term memory and impairment of concentration. In view of the fact that sensory and cognitive disturbances are experienced by many patients objective evidence was sought with multi-modality sensory evoked potentials and auditory event-related cognitive potentials in a group of ME patients both with and without the enteroviral antigen, VP1 test positive. The auditory brainstem, median nerve somatosensory and pattern reversal checkerboard visual potentials were normal for all 37 patients tested. In contrast to the sensory potentials significant differences in the mean latencies of the cognitive potential N2 and P3 were found. Reaction times were also significantly prolonged but the performance in terms of error was not significantly affected. No significant difference emerged in any of the parameters for the VP1 test. P3 was abnormal in latency or amplitude in 36% of the VP1 positive patients for the frequency discrimination task and 48% for the more difficult duration discrimination task. The abnormalities indicate attentional deficits in some patients and slower speed of information processing in others. The prolonged latencies observed in these patients have not been observed in patients with depression in many other studies.

Full text

PDF
247

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Archard L. C., Bowles N. E., Behan P. O., Bell E. J., Doyle D. Postviral fatigue syndrome: persistence of enterovirus RNA in muscle and elevated creatine kinase. J R Soc Med. 1988 Jun;81(6):326–329. doi: 10.1177/014107688808100608. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Baker M., Dorzab J., Winokur G., Cadoret R. J. Depressive disease: classification and clinical characteristics. Compr Psychiatry. 1971 Jul;12(4):354–365. doi: 10.1016/0010-440x(71)90073-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bell E. J., McCartney R. A., Riding M. H. Coxsackie B viruses and myalgic encephalomyelitis. J R Soc Med. 1988 Jun;81(6):329–331. doi: 10.1177/014107688808100609. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Calder B. D., Warnock P. J., McCartney R. A., Bell E. J. Coxsackie B viruses and the post-viral syndrome: a prospective study in general practice. J R Coll Gen Pract. 1987 Jan;37(294):11–14. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Caligiuri M., Murray C., Buchwald D., Levine H., Cheney P., Peterson D., Komaroff A. L., Ritz J. Phenotypic and functional deficiency of natural killer cells in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. J Immunol. 1987 Nov 15;139(10):3306–3313. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Drachman D. A. Memory and cognitive function in man: does the cholinergic system have a specific role? Neurology. 1977 Aug;27(8):783–790. doi: 10.1212/wnl.27.8.783. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Goodin D. S., Squires K. C., Starr A. Long latency event-related components of the auditory evoked potential in dementia. Brain. 1978 Dec;101(4):635–648. doi: 10.1093/brain/101.4.635. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hammond E. J., Meador K. J., Aung-Din R., Wilder B. J. Cholinergic modulation of human P3 event-related potentials. Neurology. 1987 Feb;37(2):346–350. doi: 10.1212/wnl.37.2.346. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Holmes G. P., Kaplan J. E., Gantz N. M., Komaroff A. L., Schonberger L. B., Straus S. E., Jones J. F., Dubois R. E., Cunningham-Rundles C., Pahwa S. Chronic fatigue syndrome: a working case definition. Ann Intern Med. 1988 Mar;108(3):387–389. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-108-3-387. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Jamal G. A., Hansen S. Electrophysiological studies in the post-viral fatigue syndrome. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1985 Jul;48(7):691–694. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.48.7.691. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Johnson R., Jr, Pfefferbaum A., Kopell B. S. P300 and long-term memory: latency predicts recognition performance. Psychophysiology. 1985 Sep;22(5):497–507. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1985.tb01639.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Kutas M., McCarthy G., Donchin E. Augmenting mental chronometry: the P300 as a measure of stimulus evaluation time. Science. 1977 Aug 19;197(4305):792–795. doi: 10.1126/science.887923. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Levit R. A., Sutton S., Zubin J. Evoked potential correlates of information processing in psychiatric patients. Psychol Med. 1973 Nov;3(4):487–494. doi: 10.1017/s0033291700054295. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Lloyd A. R., Hales J. P., Gandevia S. C. Muscle strength, endurance and recovery in the post-infection fatigue syndrome. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1988 Oct;51(10):1316–1322. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.51.10.1316. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Lloyd A. R., Wakefield D., Boughton C., Dwyer J. What is myalgic encephalomyelitis? Lancet. 1988 Jun 4;1(8597):1286–1287. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(88)92107-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Mathew R. J., Weinman M. L., Mirabi M. Physical symptoms of depression. Br J Psychiatry. 1981 Oct;139:293–296. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. McCartney R. A., Banatvala J. E., Bell E. J. Routine use of mu-antibody-capture ELISA for the serological diagnosis of Coxsackie B virus infections. J Med Virol. 1986 Jul;19(3):205–212. doi: 10.1002/jmv.1890190302. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. McEvedy C. P., Beard A. W. Concept of benign myalgic encephalomyelitis. Br Med J. 1970 Jan 3;1(5687):11–15. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.5687.11. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Parish J. G. Early outbreaks of 'epidemic neuromyasthenia'. Postgrad Med J. 1978 Nov;54(637):711–717. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.54.637.711. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Patterson J. V., Michalewski H. J., Starr A. Latency variability of the components of auditory event-related potentials to infrequent stimuli in aging, Alzheimer-type dementia, and depression. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1988 Nov-Dec;71(6):450–460. doi: 10.1016/0168-5597(88)90049-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Pfefferbaum A., Ford J. M., Wenegrat B. G., Roth W. T., Kopell B. S. Clinical application of the P3 component of event-related potentials. I. Normal aging. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1984 Apr;59(2):85–103. doi: 10.1016/0168-5597(84)90026-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Pfefferbaum A., Wenegrat B. G., Ford J. M., Roth W. T., Kopell B. S. Clinical application of the P3 component of event-related potentials. II. Dementia, depression and schizophrenia. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1984 Apr;59(2):104–124. doi: 10.1016/0168-5597(84)90027-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Prasher D. K., Gibson W. P. Brain stem auditory evoked potentials: a comparative study of monaural versus binaural stimulation in the detection of multiple sclerosis. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1980 Nov;50(3-4):247–253. doi: 10.1016/0013-4694(80)90152-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Ramsay A. M. 'Epidemic neuromyasthenia' 1955-1978. Postgrad Med J. 1978 Nov;54(637):718–721. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.54.637.718. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Roth W. T., Pfefferbaum A., Kelly A. F., Berger P. A., Kopell B. S. Auditory event-related potentials in schizophrenia and depression. Psychiatry Res. 1981 Apr;4(2):199–212. doi: 10.1016/0165-1781(81)90023-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Starr A., Barrett G. Disordered auditory short-term memory in man and event-related potentials. Brain. 1987 Aug;110(Pt 4):935–959. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Straus S. E., Tosato G., Armstrong G., Lawley T., Preble O. T., Henle W., Davey R., Pearson G., Epstein J., Brus I. Persisting illness and fatigue in adults with evidence of Epstein-Barr virus infection. Ann Intern Med. 1985 Jan;102(1):7–16. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-102-1-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Verleger R., Cohen R. Effects of certainty, modality shift and guess outcome on evoked potentials and reaction times in chronic schizophrenics. Psychol Med. 1978 Feb;8(1):81–93. doi: 10.1017/s0033291700006656. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Wessely S., David A., Butler S., Chalder T. Management of chronic (post-viral) fatigue syndrome. J R Coll Gen Pract. 1989 Jan;39(318):26–29. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Wessely S. Myalgic encephalomyelitis-a warning: discussion paper. J R Soc Med. 1989 Apr;82(4):215–217. doi: 10.1177/014107688908200411. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Yousef G. E., Bell E. J., Mann G. F., Murugesan V., Smith D. G., McCartney R. A., Mowbray J. F. Chronic enterovirus infection in patients with postviral fatigue syndrome. Lancet. 1988 Jan 23;1(8578):146–150. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(88)92722-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. el Massioui F., Lesèvre N. Attention impairment and psychomotor retardation in depressed patients: an event-related potential study. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1988 Jul;70(1):46–55. doi: 10.1016/0013-4694(88)90193-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES