Open Causal mechanisms in fatigue, Morten & Williams [England]

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BrightCandle

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
BrightCandle said:
Not quite sure where to put this. MEA promoting a study focussed on just fatigue in ME/CFS and Long Covid lumped together is a little concerning. never mind the requirement to travel to Oxford to do it which will select the mildest patients for a lengthy appointment to measure brain waves.

meassociation.org.uk

Research: University of Oxford: Participants required: What causes fatigue? - The ME Association

Dr Inga Williams is seeking participants for a study that she […]
meassociation.org.uk meassociation.org.uk
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The measurements being used are potentially interesting:

We are looking for volunteers who are healthy or suffer from fatigue after a viral infection and have Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) or Long COVID. Our study will entail a single visit, which will last about 90 minutes and will occur at either the John Radcliffe Hospital or Oxford Brookes University, Headington.
… …
If you decide to take part, we will ask you to:
• … …
• provide samples of your blood, stool, urine, saliva and hair;
• undertake tasks of memory and attention while we record your brain waves;
• wear a smart watch for a few days.
… …
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And, though I understand @BrightCandle ’s point that it is yet another study ignoring severe and very severe ME/CFS, the scans involved presumably need to be hospital based and presumably of themselves rule out the severer end of the spectrum. However would be interesting to know how they are selecting subjects given the patient information fails to distinguish Long Covid with and without ME/CFS type symptoms.

The issue of fatigue is a complex one, and it would be useful to know more about their research hypotheses. The information here seems to imply they are looking at fatigue as a general issue rather than specifically investigating ME/CFS and overlapping Long Covid. If the former wouldn’t it make sense to also look at other fatigue inducing conditions as we can not absolutely say that fatigue is any more of a unitary phenomenon than any other non specific symptoms like headaches for example. If the latter, I echo @BrightCandle in that fatigue is not necessarily a helpful focus in understanding our condition.

[added - final paragraph]
 
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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED for a study of Fatigue.

Why Study Fatigue? Fatigue is common in many illnesses, but it is the major feature of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long COVID (LC). We hope to record your brain waves while you do simple memory and attention tasks and we will examine your blood, saliva, urine and hair samples to find out what can cause fatigue. If our study establishes causes of fatigue in ME/CFS and Long COVID, this may have benefits for people with other illnesses, who suffer from fatigue.

We are looking for volunteers who are healthy or suffer from fatigue after a viral infection and have Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) or LongCOVID. Our study will entail a single visit, which will last about 90 minutes and will occur at either the John Radcliffe Hospital or Oxford Brookes University, Headington.

We would like to hear from you if you are:
• aged 18-55 years (If assigned female at birth: with regular periods, not pregnant or breast-feeding);
• not receiving regular ongoing treatment for other problems;
• not used: antibiotic, anti-fungal, antiviral medication in the past three months;
• not had recent treatment for cancer;
• not struggling with weight issues.

What will happen if I decide to take a part?
If you decide to take part, we will ask you to:
• sign a consent form and check your eligibility for the study;
• provide samples of your blood, stool, urine, saliva and hair;
• undertake tasks of memory and attention while we record your brain waves;
• wear a smart watch for a few days.

We will keep your data confidential and your samples pseudonymised.

If you are interested and would like more information, please contact
Principal Investigator: Prof. K. Morten (at the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, Women’s Centre, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, karl.morten@wrh.ox.ac.uk),
Primary Researcher: Dr I. Williams, inga.williams@wrh.ox.ac.uk
 
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Morten said:
Why Study Fatigue? Fatigue is common in many illnesses, but it is the major feature of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) and Long COVID (LC).
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Yes, that's nonsense. 'Long Covid' is an umbrella term covering many things, including just loss of taste with no fatigue, and overt lung damage with fatigue arising from that. We need researchers to be a lot more precise about what they are looking for when they recruit people with post-Covid-19 conditions. Otherwise, the participant selection problems mean their research is just a waste of everyone's time.

I wouldn't really say that 'fatigue is the main feature of ME/CFS' either. I would have thought Karl Morten would know that by now.

This study looks slightly worrying for other reasons - it's not clear what the hypothesis is, the description is very vague.
 
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