Symptoms of Meares-Irlen/Visual Stress Syndrome in subjects diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Several diagnostic symptoms of the visual-processing deficit Meares-Irlen/Visual Stress Syndrome are remarkably similar to symptom manifestations reported by individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). We surveyed the specific incidences of nine widely-recognised symptoms of visual stress (VS) in a group of subjects (n=20) previously diagnosed with CFS. The presence of each symptom of VS in the CFS group was compared to its respective presence in both an age and sex matched healthy comparison group (n=46), and an age and sex matched group comprised of individuals (n=14) diagnosed with VS. Results showed the frequencies of all nine VS symptoms in the CFS-diagnosed group to be significantly higher (p=.032 – p