A prospective study of CFS following infectious mononucleosis in college students

描述(由申请人提供)：大约12%的年轻人将在传染性单核细胞增多症(IM)后6个月达到慢性疲劳综合征(CFS)的标准(Katz等人，2011年)。IM似乎是一些CFS患者的易感因素。已经提出了许多候选的心理和生物危险因素来解释这种现象，但几乎所有因素都缺乏患者患IM或CFS之前的前瞻性数据。一些学生在大学期间发展了即时通讯。许多学生健康服务机构都有学生在身体状况良好时使用他们的服务(例如，针对运动相关伤害和节育)。我们的研究将纳入西北大学(NU)的学生，他们在医学上表现良好时，以及在发展为IM和CFS之后，都会使用基于大学的医疗服务。我们将在学生身体状况良好时、当他们发展IM时、当他们发展CFS时收集生物和心理数据。在3年的招聘期结束后，我们将继续跟踪那些已经发展了12个月的CFS的人。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，如既往应激性生活事件、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。我们建议的研究将比较这些预期的疾病前(IM)变量和疾病后(IM)数据，这些学生已经和没有继续发展为CFS。这项研究将能够确定IM后CFS发生的危险因素。我们有独特的能力来实施这项针对IM和CFS发展的“圈养”和高危人群的前瞻性研究。

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.