Abide

Nature & Nurture...

Dr Russell Lane, a neurologist at Charing Cross Hospital, in London, said: "This exciting new work shows that some aspects of this complex illness may be understandable in molecular terms, and that CFS is not a 'made-up' illness."

More on the above, below.

I've not written here in ages -- mostly offline for awhile, now back on but adjusting to a switch from Windows to Mac. While I was without my laptop, I spent some time looking around my house. [You can follow this drama in The Laptop Saga category at Watermark, if you like.]

Chronic fatigue patients show lower response to placebos

Contrary to conventional wisdom, patients with chronic fatigue syndrome respond to placebos at a lower rate than people with many other illnesses, according to the first systematic review of the topic.

According to the new analysis by Dr. Hyong Jin Cho of King's College London and colleagues, 19.6 percent of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome improved after receiving inactive treatments, compared with a widely accepted figure of about 30 percent for other conditions.

Because the placebo effect seems to be strongest in diseases with highly subjective symptoms, some medical professionals believed it could be as high as 50 percent among CFS patients.

The review, reported in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, pooled data from 29 studies in which 1,016 people with CFS received various placebos. . .

Via Chronic Fatiguers' Journal

I often wonder if the many physicians who told their multiple sclerosis patients that it was all in their minds ever apologized.

We're more active than we think?

From WebMD
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News

Jan. 26, 2005 -- People with fibromyalgia  and other chronic pain conditions may be more active than they think they are, according to a new study.

"When you ask people with fibromyalgia about their level of function in terms of activity levels, they'll report a lower function than almost any other group," says researcher Dan Clauw, MD. "The surprising thing that we found was that their average level of activity was about the same as someone who didn't have fibromyalgia."
. . .

In the study, researchers followed 38 people with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, or both, and a comparison group of 27 healthy adults without those conditions. Each participant wore an actigraph, a small watch-sized device that measures movement in various directions rather than just one direction like a pedometer, to measure physical activity levels.
. . .

" . . . the study showed that pain and fatigue preceded lower exercise levels rather than followed increased physical activity. Researchers say this finding may help doctors encourage their patients to remain active without increasing painful symptoms.

"We've probably been thinking about fibromyalgia incorrectly," Clauw says. "This group was impaired, but they weren't impaired in the way they thought they would be."

Worth reading all of it (it's short) -- and interesting implications. I fear the major one is that people aren't getting nearly the exercise they should. I also wonder about the activity history of the subjects. I used to swim 20 laps a day; compared to that, I barely move now -- and that influences, no doubt, how I measure my current activity level.

Indiana Doctor Gives Hope to Fibromyalgia Sufferers

Via ImmuneSupport.Com:

An Evansville, Indiana physician is going to the American Academy of Pain Management conference in San Antonio Wednesday, to present what could be a breakthrough finding. He suspects the chronic pain of diseases like fibromyalgia could be caused by a series of viruses . . .

Pain specialist Dr. David Johnson realized the fatigue, aches and chills many of his patients describe are the same symptoms that come with a case of the flu. So he had an idea: What if he tested them for some common viruses? "I went through and listed about three or four viruses, and didn't even know if the labs could test for them, and my gosh, they came back positive."

He eventually came up with list of 17 viruses and found that his fibromyalgia patients were all testing positive for anywhere from three to nine viruses each. Dr. Johnson believes their immune systems aren't recognizing the viruses as pathogens and as they steal cell material to replicate, the patient is left with a host of ailments. He's prescribing anti-viral medications to try to suppress the viruses, which can take years . . .

So far, 26 of Dr. Johnson's patients have tested positive for up to nine viruses. He says six are responding well to anti-viral medication.

Besides fibromyalgia, the treatment is also helping sufferers of chronic fatigue and irritable bowel syndromes.

The article goes on to list the viruses Dr. Johnson tests for.

Chronic fatigue rates fell immediately after Sept 11 attacks

From Medical News Today:

Researchers studying chronic fatigue rates in the United States saw a dip in the syndrome immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, suggesting a possible “fight or flight” effect may have put some people's fatigue into remission, a new study finds . . .

Heim says the study results may be skewed, if fatigued individuals represented a disproportionate number of people who dropped out of the project after the attacks . . .

A number of potential explanations exist for their findings, which are published in the current issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. One possibility is that the terrorist attacks may have distracted the attention of those suffering from their fatigue or altered their perceptions of fatigue . . .

Heim and colleagues call for more research to determine potential psychological or biological mechanisms for their findings. They also note that their study was designed only to note an association between Sept. 11 and CFS rates; more research is needed to prove whether the terrorist attacks affected CFS rates . . .

Also, since their study ended only three months after the attacks, it wasn't long enough to detect new cases of CFS that may have been related to the attacks . . .

Surprise!

Men, Women More Different Than Thought

It turns out that major illnesses like heart disease and lung cancer are influenced by gender and that perhaps treatments for women ought to be slightly different from the approach used for men. . . recent discoveries suggest that genes, hormones and lifestyle may be behind many of the differences. For example . . .

*Women are more prone to autoimmune diseases, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, in which disease-fighting mechanisms mistakenly attack the body's own tissues . . .

*Women's symptoms for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease — debilitating intestinal diseases that affect men and women — vary considerably each month, requiring frequent medication adjustments . . .

Inflammatory bowel disease, which encompasses both Crohn's and colitis . . . seems to be on the rise among young women . . .

via Trish Wilson's Blog

Depression

Chronic Fatigue Differs from Depression

Chronic fatigue syndrome and depression have distinct biological features, researchers in Canada report . . . There are "measurable differences" between patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and depression, the researchers conclude. These findings add to a "growing body of evidence" of physiologic differences between the two conditions and suggest different causes.

Studies Seeking Subjects

UC seeks females for fibromyalgia study

The University of Cincinnati is seeking women who suffer from fibromyalgia to continue a study of a drug to treat the condition . . . UC is part of a multi-center study of duloxetine, trade name Cymbalta, to treat the condition. Volunteers will receive free medication and evaluations. For information, call (513) 558-9477.

Research center seeks cure for chronic fatigue

Since [The Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center] opened a registry last year, 91 people have joined as subjects for their project. “Opening a registry is a means for us to generate a pool of subjects for research studies related to chronic multi-symptom illnesses,” said Kimberly Groner, a health science researcher . . .

The research project consists of several individual studies focusing on effects of stress on memory and concentration and also the effects of sleep and exercise on symptoms of the illness . . .

The center is hoping 300 people will join the registry each year, Leone said. It would like to gain 750 participants between the ages of 18 to 60 in the next three years.

The registry welcomes both male and female volunteers who have been diagnosed with one of the illnesses, or who think they may have symptoms. The registry also needs healthy individuals to serve as control subjects for the studies.

For more information about chronic multi-symptom illnesses or the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Registry, call (866) 288-0046 or visit www.med.umich.edu/painresearch.

Fibromyalgia Relief for Women?

From Ivanhoe.com:

The antidepressant duloxetine, also known as Cymbalta, may significantly reduce symptoms of fibromyalgia in women, according to a new study. . . Researchers say the women in the study reported significant improvement in symptoms, while the men did not.