Trial Report The influence of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) family history on patients with ME/CFS, Jason et al, 2024

https://www.explorationpub.com/uploads/Article/A1001215/1001215.pdf

Abstract Aim: It is unclear if individuals with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) with family histories of ME/CFS differ from those with ME/CFS without this family history. To explore this issue, quantitative data from patients with ME/CFS and controls were collected, and we examined those with and without family histories of ME/CFS.

Methods: The samples included 400 patients with ME/CFS, and a non-ME/CFS chronic illness control group of 241 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and 173 with post-polio syndrome (PPS).

Results: Confirming findings from prior studies, those with ME/CFS were more likely to have family members with ME/CFS than controls. We found family histories of ME/CFS were significantly higher (18%) among the ME/CFS group than the non-ME/CFS controls (3.9%). In addition, patients with ME/CFS who had family histories of ME/CFS were more likely to have gastrointestinal symptoms than those with ME/ CFS without those family histories.

Conclusions: Given the recent reports of gastrointestinal difficulties among those with ME/CFS, our findings might represent one predisposing factor for the emergence of ME/CFS.

 

Seems like work that is worthwhile to spend some efforts on.

Given that some S4ME members have reported to have ME/CFS running in their family it seems reasonable that something genetic/environmental could lead to an increase in cases in families. But I’m not sure how much the controls here tell us. Presumably it’s quite hard for many patients with ME/CFS to get a diagnosis, so a family member having access to a doctor diagnosing ME/CFS presumably would be a strong confounder, whilst one would hope that something like MS can be diagnosed by most neurologists. I would think it could also be possible and worth the effort to have access to a larger control group of MS patients to at least get more reliable data for the controls.

I hadn’t seen their older study yet or looked at the methodology of that study, but if true, it seems highly interesting that pwME have a higher family rate of Lupus than they do with ME/CFS and many other conditions (especially since most estimates seem to suggest that Lupus is less common than ME/CFS). The reference to endocrine/metabolic disorders (if the data is good) also looks interesting (especially since some of those are autoimmune diseases).

 

Another confounder is the diagnosis doesn’t occur to everyone. I was ill for 5 years before the diagnosis occurred to me and some people presumably never get diagnosed at all (they may get diagnosed with something else e.g. Fibromyalgia, Migraine, IBS, depression, etc.), while if a family member has it the diagnosis may be more likely to be considered.

 

ME Research UK

Research suggests that a family history of chronic illness may represent a predisposing risk factor for ME/CFS – including history of ME/CFS, cancer, autoimmune conditions, and metabolic disorders. However, less is known about whether family history could have an impact on symptoms of ME/CFS.

Therefore, in a study published on the 11th April 2024, Professor Leonard Jason, and his colleague Sarah Ngonmedje, investigated whether symptoms of ME/CFS differ between those with, and those without, a family history of the disease.

Read more about the study here: https://tinyurl.com/5f5h3acu
Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/4d67Phc

 

Online version, https://www.explorationpub.com/Journals/em/Article/1001215