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Article: State of the Knowledge Workshop at the NIH: Pathogens II - Epstein Barr virus and the Enter

Many thanks again for this superb overview Cort - personally never doubted the viral(s) cause and maintenance of ME/CFS so this area of particular interest (sort of catch the blighters in the first place).
 
Thanks Cort for this article!!! I'd like to add one more study to your list of Straus publications - namely the infamous 1989 study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Kruesi M, Dale J, Straus SE, Psychiatric diagnoses in patients who have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome).


The abstract reads in part,

"The authors used the Diagnostic Interview Schedule to assess the lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders in 28 patients who met Centers for Disease Control case definition criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome. Compared with studies of the general population and studies of chronically medically ill patients who received the same structured interview, the rates of psychiatric illness in patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome appeared high. An examination of the medical histories of the 28 patients indicated that psychiatric disorders more often preceded the chronic fatigue than followed it."



This study generated a lot of unfortunate media headlines, thanks to a press release by NIAID titled "Lifetime history of Psychiatric illness in people with chronic fatigue syndrome".
 
This is well written up Cort, thanks for the overview.
What I womder is, whether any of this research can account for the parent - child transmission of CFS/ME which we see?

Good question! YEs it could and probably. EBV is passed through the saliva so a little kiss could do it. EBV is so transmissable, in fact, that everybody has it - why some peoiple come down with CFS follow infectious mononucleosis is another matter.
 
Thanks Cort for this article!!! I'd like to add one more study to your list of Straus publications - namely the infamous 1989 study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Kruesi M, Dale J, Straus SE, Psychiatric diagnoses in patients who have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome).

The abstract reads in part,

"The authors used the Diagnostic Interview Schedule to assess the lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders in 28 patients who met Centers for Disease Control case definition criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome. Compared with studies of the general population and studies of chronically medically ill patients who received the same structured interview, the rates of psychiatric illness in patients with the chronic fatigue syndrome appeared high. An examination of the medical histories of the 28 patients indicated that psychiatric disorders more often preceded the chronic fatigue than followed it."

This study generated a lot of unfortunate media headlines, thanks to a press release by NIAID titled "Lifetime history of Psychiatric illness in people with chronic fatigue syndrome".

Isn't that something - so that;s another mark he made and I will get that in there. The amazing thing bout that study is that it was such a dinky one. My guess is that the media was ready to run with that finding when it came up and they did.

I looked -- that was the first psych study anyone ever did on CFS and it was so small and underpowered that it was included i nthe erratum of the Journal it appeared in. I added this to the article

A seemingly paltry 1989 'study' that only made it into the 'erratum' of the Journal of Clinical Psychology suggesting increased rates of psychiatric disorders nevertheless received a great deal of media attention. Until that point CFS research had been unremmittingly immune oriented. Straus was never to return to this field but others certainly did. Peter White's first paper was just a few months away.
 
Many thanks again for this superb overview Cort - personally never doubted the viral(s) cause and maintenance of ME/CFS so this area of particular interest (sort of catch the blighters in the first place).

Thanks Enid! Yes, Chia in particular believes you have to identify the bugs and hopefully early on..It'll be interesting to see how that hepatitis drug works out since I think it, spending how patients do on the drug, it should either prove or disprove his theory.

If they do well (aka AZT) that would really be something.
 
EVB research is interesting to me because Mono either triggered or was the cause of my case of M.E.....but I just can't seem to understand some of it. My M.E. specialist said at a recent appointment that I have a re-activated EBV infection. This seems to be what Montoya treats as well. However, looking at the same test results, I had a regular GP say it was merely evidince of past infection??? Is this just a controversial issue?
 
EVB research is interesting to me because Mono either triggered or was the cause of my case of M.E.....but I just can't seem to understand some of it. My M.E. specialist said at a recent appointment that I have a re-activated EBV infection. This seems to be what Montoya treats as well. However, looking at the same test results, I had a regular GP say it was merely evidince of past infection??? Is this just a controversial issue?

You just stepped into one ofthe most controversial areas of CFS. Several ME/CFS physicians (Lerner, Montoya, Dantini) believe that high IgG titers, particularly in older people, are not just signals of a past infeciton - which is how they are general percieved by doctors (that is what they are taught) but are signs of a current infection. These CFS doctors are essentially trying to turn accepted medical knowledge on its head. Its tough being out in front.

Check out Carols story and the Dantini interview on the front page for more.

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/cont...g-Fibromyalgia-and-CFS-ME-CFS-with-Antivirals

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/cont...gue-Syndrome-A-Novel-Author-Returns-to-Health
 
Thanks Cort, this makes a little more sense (now that I've read these articles). I get the feeling that my M.E. specialist is "open" to some of the more experimental treatments, especially if they help patients in practice. But she was quite clear that the EBNA igG being reactive was a sign of past infection and that VCA IgG was a sign of present infection? Is this along the same lines as these other CFS doctors.....the testing didn't even give titers (viral load) which is too bad just because I am curious.
 
Thanks Cort, this makes a little more sense (now that I've read these articles). I get the feeling that my M.E. specialist is "open" to some of the more experimental treatments, especially if they help patients in practice. But she was quite clear that the EBNA igG being reactive was a sign of past infection and that VCA IgG was a sign of present infection? Is this along the same lines as these other CFS doctors.....the testing didn't even give titers (viral load) which is too bad just because I am curious.

If I have this right she's on board with Lerner et al. on the VCA IgG - if viral loads were 4 times higher normal. I don't know about EBNA IgG.. I had the same problem with one of my few sets of viral test results - no titers! :(
 
EBV can be invisible and kill you when combined with corticoids

Check out this article.
http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/content/48/11/1462.full


A patient treated with prednisone was hospitalized with fever. Blood and urine values were normal. Liver enzymes elevated. Liver biopsy was performed and a large B-cell lymphoma was identified. She was treated with rituximab. Her clinical status worsened and she died a few days later.

Chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) detected extensive EBV-encoded RNA (Fig. 1).

EBV is dangerous.
 
A question:

Above in Cort's article it says: "... there is some unexpected hope on the horizon, though. A hepatitis C drug under development will, he [Chia] believes, be able to knock off the RNA that is causing havoc in ME/CFS. If it does that, that will open the door not only to better treatment but more research."

Does anyone know which hepatitis C drug under development John Chia is referring to?

Here is a list of all the hepatitis C drugs under development

http://www.hcvdrugs.com/