Newswise — Is there a link between mononucleosis and chronic fatigue syndrome? A five-year, NIH-funded $2.6 million study of some 400 Chicago-area teens at the University of Illinois at Chicago aims to find out.
More than half a million Americans suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome, a debilitating disorder that saps those afflicted of all energy and interferes with daily living.
Many who have it can't work or become so tired after work that they're unable to do anything more.
While criteria have been set to help physicians diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome, much about the disease -- including what causes it -- remains unknown.
Among the gray areas of chronic fatigue syndrome is its prevalence in adolescents. Symptoms often mimic those of a disease common in this age group -- mononucleosis -- but unlike acute mononucleosis, chronic fatigue syndrome can endure sometimes for years.
Renee Taylor, a researcher in the UIC College of Applied Health Sciences, will look at Chicago-area teens who develop mono, then go on to develop chronic fatigue syndrome -- in an effort to shed new light on possible causes of CFS.
"We will look at a specific subgroup of people with the syndrome (the post-infectious subtype) to better learn the cause and course of the illness as it progresses, and look at some of the factors that are responsible for its progression following infection in adolescents," said Taylor, an associate professor of occupational therapy.
About 400 Chicago-area adolescents who develop mononucleosis will be recruited for the study. Physicians at more than 50 primary care practices affiliated with Children's Memorial Hospital, UIC and Advocate Health Care will be asked to refer patients with mono to take part.
Three earlier studies in Australia, Britain and the United States found that roughly 10 percent of adults with mono do not recover within six months of its onset. The unanswered questions are if the symptoms persisting beyond six months are those of lingering mononucleosis, chronic fatigue syndrome or some other post-infectious fatigue process, and whether the syndrome manifests itself differently in adolescents.
Taylor's study hopes to answer this by tracking the adolescents over a two-year period. Those who remain chronically fatigued six months after being diagnosed with mono will be matched with a control group of youngsters who recover as expected.
"By studying patients with mono, we're allowed to conduct prospective research so we can look at a patient before they develop chronic fatigue syndrome, at the stage where they've just developed an infection, and then follow them over a two-year period to determine what characteristics of these mono patients who don't recover may lead to the development of this post-infectious chronic fatigue syndrome," Taylor said.
"Of the abnormalities found so far in people with chronic fatigue syndrome, it's unknown if they came before or after the disease, or if they were part of someone's biological predisposition. By studying adolescents with mono, we're taking a well-documented group of people for whom we know at least 10 percent never fully recover."
Taylor hopes the findings will help physicians treat youngsters with mono with new knowledge and expertise that may ultimately prevent them from developing chronic fatigue syndrome.
"If a young person with mono comes to a doctor with acute depression, which is very common with mono, or if it's known there are endocrine or cardiovascular problems that are different and in excess of what would be expected in a kid with mono, they could monitor the patient and provide care and treatment so it does not become a more severe chronic illness."
Taylor, a specialist in the study of fatigue-related disabilities, is a co-editor with Leonard Jason and Patricia Fennell of the newly-released reference text, Handbook of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, published by John Wiley & Sons.
For more information about UIC, visit http://www.uic.edu
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