A prospective study of CFS following infectious mononucleosis in college students

描述（由申请人提供）：约12%的年轻人在感染性单核细胞增多症（IM）后6个月符合慢性疲劳综合征（CFS）的标准（Katz et al., 2011）。IM似乎是一些人患上慢性疲劳综合症的易感因素。许多候选的心理和生物学风险因素被提出来解释这一现象，但几乎都缺乏患者发病前的前瞻性数据，无论是IM还是CFS。有些学生在大学期间就发展了即时通讯。许多学生保健服务机构都有在身体健康时（例如，治疗与运动有关的伤害和节育）使用其服务的学生。我们的研究将招募西北大学（NU）的学生，这些学生在身体健康时使用大学的健康服务，以及在患有IM和CFS之后。我们将在学生健康、IM和CFS时收集生物和心理数据。在3年的招募期结束时，我们将继续跟踪那些已经发展为CFS的人12个月。我们将收集被认为与CFS发展相关的候选生物和心理因素的数据，如以前的压力生活事件、“行动倾向”、应对技能、自主神经功能障碍、细胞因子水平和IM本身的严重程度。我们提出的研究将比较这些潜在的病前（IM）变量和病后（IM）数据，在有和没有继续发展为CFS的学生之间。本研究将能够确定IM后CFS发展的危险因素。我们有独特的能力来实施这项前瞻性研究，对IM和CFS发展的“圈养”和高风险人群进行研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): About 12% of young adults will meet the criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) 6 months following infectious mononucleosis (IM) (Katz et al., 2011). IM appears to be a predisposing factor for some individuals who develop CFS. Many candidate psychological and biological risk factors have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, but almost all lack prospective data from before the patients became ill with either IM or CFS. Some students develop IM while in college. Many student health services have students who use their services when they are medically well (e.g., for sports-related injuries and birth control). Our study will enroll Northwestern University (NU) students who use the university based health services when medically well, as well as after they develop IM and CFS. We will gather biological and psychological data when students are well, when they develop IM, and when they develop CFS. At the end of the 3 year recruitment period, we will continue to follow those who have developed CFS for 12 months. We will collect data regarding candidate biological and psychological factors thought to be related to the development of CFS, such as previous stressful life events, "action proneness", coping skills, autonomic dysfunction, cytokine levels and the severity of the IM itself. Our proposed study will compare these prospective pre-illness (IM) variables to post-illness (IM) data between students who do and do not go on to develop CFS. This study will be able to identify risk factors for the development of CFS following IM. We have the unique ability to implement this prospective study with a "captive" and high-risk population for the development of IM and CFS.