Pharmacogenetics - a CDC study compared the DNA and gene activity of 58 CFS patients with 55 matched controls. The data was given to 4 independent research teams around the world. All four groups found differences in five areas of three genes, which according to researcher Suzanna Vernon "are very important in the function of the HPA, wihch is the body's stress response system".
Depression Predicts Heart Rhythm Abnormalities in Heart Attack Patients - a study from Duke University shows that depression and anxiety significantly increase the risk of heart attack in patients who have a healthy heart. Even mild depression was found to increase the risk of ventricular tachycardia by 81 per cent.
Using interaction graphs for analysing the therapy process - a study shows that the fibromyalgia patients who improve most are those with the highest "self-efficacy" (their estimate of their ability to recover from their illness through the therapy). Self-efficacy is also one of the main factors in the placebo effect, which explains why many patients recover through the placebo effect.
Physiological correlates of burnout among women - shows that women suffering from burnout show higher levels of inflammatory responses and oxidative stress.
Persistent Burnout Theory of CFS - theory of the relationship between CFS and burnout.
Mechanisms underlying fatigue: a voxel-based morphometric study of chronic fatigue syndrome confirms that the prefrontal cortex of the brain is involved in CFS.
Predicting chronic symptoms after an acute "stressor"--lessons learned from 3 medical conditions shows that a lack of activities and too much rest after a stressful incident can increase the chances of developing CFS, FMS or PTSD, and that a return to normal activities as soon as possible gives the best chance of recovery.
A study of 50,000 patients has shown that the use of oral steroids more than doubles the risk of heart failure. This reinforces the view that long-term high levels of cortisol are dangerous to health, and that burnout may be the body's built-in protection mechanism for preventing this.
A review of the research into exercise therapy for chronic fatigue syndrome shows that exercise therapy results in significant improvement, and that patient education and fluoxetine (Prozac) combined with exercise therapy provide further improvement. The review also concludes that there is no evidence that exercise therapy may worsen outcomes on average.
A study by Great Ormond Street Hospital has shown that rehabilitative treatment for children with chronic fatigue syndrome results in significantly greater improvement than supportive care alone (43% had complete resolution after the programme, compared to 4.5% receiving supportive care alone).
An article on WedMD.com reports a study showing that half of male Israeli war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder also had the tenderness and pain characteristic of fibromyalgia. Many fibromyalgia patients begin suffering from the illness following a traumatic incident, such as a car accident, so this is no surprise.
A study by the Psychiatry department of Guy's, King's and St Thomas' hospital showed that CFS patients had significantly lower cortisol response to awakening (a sign of reduced HPA axis function). This mirrors the results found by Pruessner et al in teachers suffering from burnout.