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URL: http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=29354&a=31606&l=en

Proper Citation: KI Biobank - KTS (RRID:SCR_005796)

Description: THIS RESOURCE IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE, documented August 23, 2016. Despite considerable research, fundamental questions about chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) remain at best partially answered. These questions include its definition, validity, the degree to which it results from genetic versus environmental factors, the nature of the substantial comorbidity observed with other conditions, and the basis of the female preponderance. The overarching aim of this project is to shed light on a number of basic questions about CFS via a large, population-based classical twin study. First, we collected data on ~32,000 adults aged 42-65 years (13,000 complete twin pairs) who are members of the Swedish Twin Registry for persistent fatigue, several overlapping conditions (fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, tension headache, allergy/eczema, generalized anxiety disorder, and major depression), and a detailed medical history. Second, the medical records of all twins who appeared to have CFS-like illness and a subset of those with CFS-explained were requested reviewed by experts. We have addressed a set of critical questions regarding CFS. First, we estimated the prevalence of CFS and its common comorbidities (fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, tension headache, allergy/eczema, generalized anxiety disorder, and major depression) in one of the largest samples yet studied. Second, we used a variety of multivariate techniques to derive an empirical typology of prolonged fatigue and to assess how this typology compares to the CFS definition. Third, we quantified the genetic and environmental sources of variation for CFS and its comorbid conditions. Fourth, we examined the influence of gender on these sources of variation. Finally, we analyzed the patterns of comorbidity between CFS and fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, tension headache, allergy/eczema, generalized anxiety disorder, and major depression using multivariate twin analyses and thereby estimated the extent of overlap between the shared and unique genetic and environmental sources of variation. In a follow-up study of 50 MZ twin pairs stringently discordant for CFS, we are now looking at intrapair differences in gene expression.

Abbreviations: KI Biobank - KTS

Resource Type: topical portal, research forum portal, biomaterial supply resource, disease-related portal, material resource, data or information resource, portal

Keywords: adult, twin, comorbidity, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, tension headache, allergy, eczema, generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, gene, environment, fatigue, gender, monozygotic, gene expression, genetic, typology