Dr Phil Kieran: My teenage daughter is listless after antibiotic

Post-infection fatigue syndromes are a complex and variable group of conditions which are still poorly understood

Fatigue is one of those symptoms which is incredibly hard to pin down medically. Picture: iStock 

My 13-year-old daughter had a chest infection recently and needed an antibiotic. Though the medication seems to have worked, she is quite listless and has difficulty getting out of bed in the morning. Could this be a reaction to the antibiotic or a lingering effect of the infection?

Fatigue is one of those symptoms which is incredibly hard to pin down medically. Hundreds of variables can contribute to tiredness or low motivation and more often than not we feel significant fatigue not due to any one factor but because many are activated at the same time.