Genes and Chronic Fatigue: How Strong Is the Evidence?

摘要

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, announced last month that it has cracked a medical mystery: Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) has a biological and genetic basis. CDC Director Julie Gerberding called the study "groundbreaking" and also hailed its novel methodology. These claims have attracted widespread media attention. But, like most aspects of CFS, the study and its findings are controversial. Some scientists think the agency is overstating the case for a link between the syndrome and genetic mutations. "Most complex-trait geneticists would interpret [these] findings more cautiously than the authors have," says Patrick Sullivan, a psychiatric geneticist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.