I also have CFS, I got it after a viral illness when I was 18, so I'd be very interested to see what this line of reasoning leads to.

It's a shame metamed went bust, because this is right up their street.

It sounds extremely plausible to me that CFS is mainly caused by a viral infection doing damage to one of the hormone glands in the HPA-axis, in fact when I seriously researched my own illness this is the conclusion I came to. Nothing else out there makes any sense.

The problem is that I am merely one man, and not a medic either, so I gave up and tried the CBT approach on myself. I have found that occasional zolpidem use really helps me get to sleep and maintain a normal routine. I avoid alcohol and go to bed early, I avoid stress.

The HPA-axis is extremely complex. It seems to me that the only way to prove/disprove its involvement in CFS would be to record the hormone levels of a large number of CFS sufferers over the course of the day, along with controls. I even toyed with the idea of trying to organise such an RCT as part of a charity.

We need more good quality data, really.