Jason, Leonard A, Ngonmedje, Sarah · Exploration of medicine · 2024 · DOI
This study looked at whether ME/CFS runs in families and if people with ME/CFS who have a family history of the disease are different from those without it. Researchers compared 400 ME/CFS patients with 414 people who had other chronic illnesses like multiple sclerosis or post-polio syndrome. They found that ME/CFS is much more common in families (18% of ME/CFS patients had relatives with ME/CFS) compared to the control groups (3.9%), and those with a family history of ME/CFS were more likely to experience stomach and digestive problems.
Understanding whether ME/CFS clusters in families and identifying associated symptom patterns could help clinicians recognize the disease earlier and potentially identify biological pathways underlying ME/CFS pathogenesis. This finding of stronger familial aggregation in ME/CFS compared to other chronic conditions supports the hypothesis that genetic or shared environmental factors may contribute to disease susceptibility. The association with gastrointestinal symptoms may point to a biological subgroup or vulnerability marker worth investigating further.
This study does not establish that gastrointestinal problems cause ME/CFS or that family history is a causal risk factor—only that these associations exist. The cross-sectional design cannot determine whether the increased gastrointestinal symptoms in familial ME/CFS cases preceded disease onset or developed as a consequence of illness. The study does not clarify whether familial clustering is due to shared genetics, shared environment, or both.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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