Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0015674 (chronic fatigue syndrome)
 2,978 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Investigation of this outbreak raises some important points for future research. Although for various reasons the case ascertainment for MCS was not complete, the three MCS patients described here all had preexisting conditions that may have put them at risk. In addition, one person among the 20 described had chronic fatigue syndrome but did not develop MCS. Many of the persons described here continue to have ongoing complaints that are not MCS. Significant exacerbation of preexisting allergic disease and new onset of asthma occurred among those patients. As a group, they did not recover completely after the outbreak; several are no longer working in the building but in alternative work spaces. An important distinction should be made between individuals who met the definition used here for MCS and others who had significant exacerbation of some better-defined illness brought on by building conditions. New onset of MCS was a partial but not complete explanation of the clinical course for this group of 20 persons.
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PMID:Development of multiple chemical sensitivity after an outbreak of sick-building syndrome. 141 93

Nonspecific symptoms and a general feeling of ill health that is difficult to objectify are the commonest health problems with which patients present to an Environmental Medicine Outpatient Department (OPD). Of this group, a great proportion meets the classification criteria for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) or Functional Memory Disorders in association with Idiopathic Chronic Fatigue (FMD-ICF). This is a longitudinal study of the OPD of Environmental Medicine, Freiburg University Hospital, Germany, to determine the feasibility and impact of an interdisciplinary therapeutic approach (self-help program, acupuncture, psychosomatic support by group interventions) in 8 patients with CFS, FMD-ICF, or CFS in association with self-reported Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (sr-MCS). The intervention took into consideration the patients' need for treatment of physical aspects of their disease. This is an important step to motivate patients into required psychosomatic support. Although none of the patients was willing to accept psychosomatic support or psychotherapy at study outset, acceptance of psychosomatic group interventions was high during the study course. Additionally five patients started with personal counseling at the Psychosomatic Clinic, and, without feeling stigmatized, 4 patients started with specific psychotherapy. The patients' quality of life showed no increase after four months, but, as shown by the Sum-Score of SF-36, it had improved significantly at the end of the study, which covered eight months' treatment (p = 0.015). Two follow-up investigations showed that this improvement probably persisted in part (mainly in the dimensions mental health, social function, physical role function, and vitality). In conclusion our interdisciplinary therapeutic approach indicates successful treatment of patients attributing CFS, CFS/sr-MCS, and FMD-ICF to environmental poisoning. We now plan to conduct a randomized controlled trial in the future.
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PMID:An interdisciplinary therapeutic approach for dealing with patients attributing chronic fatigue and functional memory disorders to environmental poisoning--a pilot study. 1188 58

Various types of evidence implicate nitric oxide and an oxidant, possibly peroxynitrite, in MCS and chemical intolerance (CI). The positive feedback loops proposed earlier for CFS may explain the chronic nature of MCS (CI) as well as several of its other reported properties. These observations raise the possibility that this proposed elevated nitric oxide/peroxynitrite mechanism may be the mechanism of a new disease paradigm, answering the question raised by Miller earlier: "Are we on the threshold of a new theory of disease?"
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PMID:Elevated nitric oxide/peroxynitrite mechanism for the common etiology of multiple chemical sensitivity, chronic fatigue syndrome, and posttraumatic stress disorder. 1200 33