Brains of People with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Offer Clues About Disorder

New York Times ^ | November 24, 2014 | David Tuller

[Seizethecarp]

Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome are accustomed to disappointment. The cause of the disorder remains unknown; it can be difficult to diagnose, and treatment options are few.

Many patients are still told to seek psychiatric help. But two recent studies — one from investigators at Stanford a few weeks ago and another from a Japanese research team published earlier this year — have found that the brains of people with chronic fatigue syndrome differ from those of healthy people, strengthening the argument that serious physiological dysfunctions are at the root of the condition.

Both studies were small, however, and their results must be replicated before firm conclusions can be drawn. Still, other studies presented at scientific conferences this year also have demonstrated physiological dysfunctions in these patients.

In the most recent study, published by the journal Radiology, researchers at Stanford University compared brain images of 15 patients with the condition to those of 14 healthy people. The scientists found differences in both the white matter, the long, cablelike nerve structures that transmit signals between parts of the brain, and the gray matter, the regions where these signals are processed and interpreted.

The most striking finding was that in people with the disorder, one neural tract in the white matter of the right hemisphere appeared to be abnormally shaped, as if the cablelike nerve structures had crisscrossed or changed in some other way. Furthermore, the most seriously ill patients exhibited the greatest levels of this abnormality.

The researchers also found in M.E./C.F.S. patients a thickening of the gray matter at the two points of the right hemisphere connected by this particular neural tract. And the overall volume of white matter in the brains of patients was reduced, compared with the brains of people without the disorder.

[Gay State Conservative]

“Chronic Fatigue Syndrome”=a gold mine for Rat Party donors working as “disability” lawyers.Kinda like chronic back pain and “anxiety disorders”.

[petercooper]

Another made up “disease.”

[Uncle Miltie]

A complete excuse for laziness.

[Seizethecarp]

Another good news/bad news story for the “Rodney Dangerfield” diagnosis of debilitating conditions: ME/CFS.

The good news is that another reputable university, Stanford, publishes a finding of a preliminary new medical basis for ME/CFS.

The bad news is that the finding is evidence of permanent brain damage! Oh joy!

This is just one more study to add to the pile of previous studies ignored by the US government and the insurance industry who are furiously attempting to evade paying claims to disabled persons rendered incapacitated by ME/CFS until and unless the lawyers of the disabled fill out all the forms and court appeals properly.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Another made up “disease.”

Me, I have MUDFS.

(”Made-Up Disease Fatigue Syndrome” — I’m really tired of ‘em.)

On the other hand, if you have one of these MUDs your doctor will write you a prescription for an Emotional Support Pig so you can annoy fellow air travelers.

There’s something to be said for that. :-)

[MamaB]

My late daughter was told she had this as a teen. It led to many other healh issues and she died in 2004. What she had was very, very real. She missed her senior year of high school but had a home teacher. She was so disappointed to miss what was supposed to be her very best high school year. We all miss her so very, very much. She would have loved her niece’s and her nephew’s little girls. My daughter was a very talented clarinet player who played all of them. I would not want anyone to go through what she did. What does any parent do when their child cries for hours from the pain she was in? RIP, Janice. You are loved and missed. This makes me so sad!

[Nepeta]

Uh, it's real.

After visiting Reno in 1988, I developed CFS. Reno was then a CFS hotspot. I did not want to be sick. I was employed and not looking to do anything but pay my own way, which I continued to do. My doctor found all sorts of viral stuff in my blood tests--fortunately, he believed me.

Once, on a trip to Baltimore, I fell asleep in a noisy room full of relatives of a friend. I was not drinking or taking any medications, and it was the middle of the day with bright sunshine. These people were strangers to me. I could fall asleep anywhere, anytime.

Fortunately, the condition was not permanent, to my great relief.

[dainbramaged]

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome = extreme laziness.
Fibromyalgia = extreme selfishness.
Foreign Accent Syndrome = extreme need for attention.
Narcissistic Personality Disorder = see above.

[Pilated]

May all those crying BS never never have to deal with this. I have lived every nightmare medical scenario trying to figure out what was and is happening to me for the last 15 years. It’s a nightmare you cannot get away from.

[trisham]

I once fell asleep on a bench in the middle of Heathrow airport.

[steve86]

Very sorry about your wonderful, talented daughter.

Most of the preceding comments give a good case for why libs mock a certain type of conservative as knuckle dragging idiots.

[DoughtyOne]

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[Veto!]

So sorry that you lost Janice, MamaB. She must have been a delight. I can only imagine the pain you went through.

As for scoffing at this study, I know there is something to it. Disappointment makes me very very tired too…I hope not to the extent that it will become chronic, but I do have those deep dark “what’s the use” days when I can easily sleep 12 hours.

[MamaB]

Thank you so much. Her daddy died 2 years later of liver cancer. It was a sad Thanksgiving for us. We are so thankful we had them as long as we did but we will always miss them. I have the best family in the world. They did everything for Thanksgivng since I am still recovering from my eye muscles surgery plus all the muscles stretching with tweezers the last few weeks. It is not as bad as it sounds! Will have to have other surgery in January. Will be thankful when this is in the past. God bless.

[MamaB]

Thanks. She loved God, her family/friends and her country. I am so glad she got to go to Austria and Germany for international high school band competition although she got ill in Austria. A few weeks after her death, I had a dream about her that told me she was ok. I was standing on a bridge overlooking a beautiful meadow. She was there with dozens of children. She had a beautiful smile. Her way of saying, “Hey mom. I am ok. No more pain.”

[Seizethecarp]

So sorry to hear of your loss of your precious daughter. I have been totally disabled by ME/CFS for 15 years from age 50 on and at least I had 50 good years before being afflicted including being able to be the father of two to mostly healthy children.

I don’t know why heartless trolls pounce on ME/CFS threads to mock sufferers or to this day even my own PCP still tells me I am “just depressed” when the literature is clear that ME/CFS is clearly a neuro/immune disease, just as multiple sclerosis was before it became recognized as a “genuine” illness.

I am sure that the same mockers that are here now on this thread mocking CFS sufferers would have been mocking multiple sclerosis sufferers 30 years ago as having an imaginary illness without even reading the thread article showing the latest MRI evidence from Stanford U.

Dr. Montoya at Stanford heads up the neuroimmune clinic at Stanford dedicated to treating ME/CFS and I am being treated at a similar clinic at NOVA U. heare in South Florida.

Free Republic CFS thread trolls who love to mock those of us with ME/CFS need to get up to date on the medical research which proves that people with REAL ME/CFS are often found be severely immune compromised and have lots of opportunistic infections of viruses.

[Rockingham]

My condolences as to the loss of your daughter and the suffering that she experienced. CFS is especially cruel in the way that it diminishes and burdens those who suffer from it.

[fr_freak]

Hey, have you ever looked into the possibility of Lyme Disease infection? It’s an insidious disease that can mimic many other diseases, and diagnosing it can be difficult without a doctor well-versed in the subject

[Seizethecarp]

Yes, I have been screened for Lyme disease several times and come up negative. It is especially important for folks like me who come from New England to be screened for Lyme!