Muscle Weakness - True Vs Perceived

True Vs Perceived

The term can be divided into two other more specific states, true muscle weakness and perceived muscle weakness. Muscle weakness can also be caused by low potassium levels.

• True muscle weakness (or neuromuscular) describes a condition where the force exerted by the muscles is less than would be expected, for example muscular dystrophy.

• Perceived muscle weakness (or non-neuromuscular) describes a condition where a person feels more effort than normal is required to exert a given amount of force but actual muscle strength is normal, for example chronic fatigue syndrome.

In some conditions, such as myasthenia gravis muscle strength is normal when resting, but true weakness occurs after the muscle has been subjected to exercise. This is also true for some cases of chronic fatigue syndrome, where objective post-exertion muscle weakness with delayed recovery time has been measured and is a feature of some of the published definitions.