Study Shows Inflammation from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome May be Risk Factor for Other Illnesses

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Study Shows Inflammation from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome May be Risk Factor for

Other Illnesses

http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=842

Published on 17 December 2008, 09:07 Last Update: 24 hour(s) ago by Insciences

Tags: Biology Chemicals Diseases Illnesses

A new study conducted by researchers from Emory University and the Centers

for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that individuals with chronic

fatigue syndrome (CFS) have increased blood levels of the inflammatory chemicals

known to increase risk for developing illnesses ranging from cardiovascular

disease and dementia to diabetes and cancer. The results of the study being

published in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity are available on line at

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2008.11.005

There has been debate over the years regarding the role played by the immune

system in disorders like CFS and fibromyalgia. Such disorders have no known

cause but ravage people's lives with symptoms such as fatigue, pain, sleep

disturbance and troubles with thinking and memory.

" Data from this study suggest that people suffering with these and other

symptoms of CFS are likely to have a physical cause for their difficulties, even

when a clear-cut medical diagnosis cannot be found, " says L. Raison, MD,

lead author on the study and clinical director of the Mind-Body Program in the

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of

Medicine.

The study also showed that inflammation is not specific for CFS and so doesn't

hold much promise as a diagnostic tool for CFS, Raison explains. " We don't know

where the increased inflammation is coming from in the patients with CFS

symptoms in our study, and although depression has been associated with

increased inflammation, in our study it did not account for the increased

inflammation in individuals with CFS or who almost met criteria for CFS. "

" Given these observations, the simplest way to think about these findings is

that people with increased inflammation--from whatever source--are more likely

than others to develop a range of symptoms that frequently lead to a diagnosis

of a condition such as CFS or fibromyalgia, " says C. Reeves, MD,

co-investigator of the study and chief of the Chronic Viral Diseases Branch of

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Reeves emphasizes that study results may have health implications. " Because

even mild increases in inflammatory markers such as c-reactive protein (CRP)

have been shown to predict the later development of many serious illnesses, we

might do better to see conditions such as chronic fatigue syndrome as way

stations on the road to diagnosable medical illnesses rather than as a discreet

disease state in its own right. "

Prior studies have shown that chemicals like CRP are produced by inflammatory

processes that can cause symptoms of CFS. Those studies have often been

confounded by a variety of factors, such as small patient groups, recruiting

patients and comparison subjects from very different populations and not

carefully looking for the presence of medical and psychiatric disorders that are

also associated with increased inflammation.

'We have attempted to address the shortcomings of previous studies by

recruiting patients and control subjects from the same large, population-based

sample of individuals, and carefully screening for the presence of conditions

such as depression that frequently co-occur with CFS, and that might skew

findings, " says Raison.

The Study

To examine the relationship between CFS and inflammation, study investigators

measured blood levels of CRP and white blood cells in 457 individuals recruited

as part of a larger study on the prevalence of CFS in metropolitan, urban and

rural Georgia.

Individuals in the study underwent extensive evaluations to identify medical

and psychiatric conditions and to identify illnesses that are currently

considered sufficient to explain fatigue and other symptoms that exclude an

individual from being able to receive a CFS diagnosis.

In addition to these assessments, all individuals in the study were diagnosed

either as having CFS, as having symptoms of CFS but not meeting full criteria

for the disorder, or as being well.

The researchers found that subjects with CFS had higher levels of CRP than did

well individuals and also had higher scores on an inflammatory factor that

included both CRP and white blood cell levels.

Subjects who had CFS symptoms, such as fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance and

cognitive complaints, but who did not meet full CFS criteria, also had higher

levels of CRP and the inflammatory factor than did well individuals and had

higher levels of white blood cell levels.

Additionally, researchers found that subjects who had symptoms but did not

meet full CFS criteria had numerically higher levels of inflammation than did

subjects with CFS; however, these differences were not significantly different.

Other factors associated with increased inflammation in the study population

as a whole included depressive symptoms, being overweight, and being a female.

Researchers found that inflammation was strongly associated with reported

disability from physical symptoms in the population as a whole, but was not

associated with disability from mental symptoms such as anxiety.

Jin-Mann S. Lin, PhD, from the Chronic Viral Diseases Branch of the CDC also

contributed to this study.

Dr. Raison is on the speaker's bureau for Wyeth, Lilly and Schering Plough. He

has served on advisory boards for Wyeth, Lilly, Schering Plough and Centocor

and is a consultant for eGenHealth.

Funding for this study was provided by the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC).

Reference: " Association of peripheral inflammatory markers with chronic

fatigue in a population-based sample. " Brain, Behavior and Immunity, published

on line Dec. 2008, DOI: 10.1016/j.bbi.2008.11.005

The W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center of Emory University is an

academic health science and service center focused on missions of teaching,

research, and health care. Its components include schools of medicine, nursing,

and public health; the Yerkes National Primate Research Center; the Emory

Winship Cancer Institute; and Emory Healthcare, the largest, most comprehensive

health system in Georgia. The Health Sciences Center has a $2.3 billion budget,

17,000 employees, 2,300 full-time and 1,900 affiliated faculty, 4,300 students

and trainees, and a $4.9 billion economic impact on metro Atlanta.