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Trial Report Comorbidity and Sex Differences in Functional Disorders and Internalizing Disorders, 2024, Thomas

Discussion in 'Psychosomatic research - ME/CFS and Long Covid' started by Dolphin, Apr 13, 2024.

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  1. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Free full text:
    https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4785891

    Comorbidity and Sex Differences in Functional Disorders and Internalizing Disorders

    26 Pages Posted: 11 Apr 2024

    Nathaniel Thomas
    affiliation not provided to SSRN

    Nathan A. Gillespie
    affiliation not provided to SSRN

    Kenneth S. Kendler
    Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) - Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics

    Albertine J. Oldehinkel
    affiliation not provided to SSRN

    Judith G.M. Rosmalen
    affiliation not provided to SSRN

    Hanna M. van Loo
    University of Groningen - Department of Psychiatry

    Abstract

    Objective:

    Functional disorders (FDs) and internalizing disorders (IDs) are highly comorbid. In the current study we estimate comorbidity rates between FDs [fibromyalgia (FM), myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)]—and IDs—[major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)] by leveraging self-reported diagnostic criteria to estimate comorbidity, sex differences, and the overrepresentation of particular combinations of diagnoses.

    Method:

    We analyzed data from 107,849 participants (mean age=49.3 (SD=13.0), 58.6% female) of the Lifelines Cohort Study. Lifelines is a prospective population-based cohort study in the northeast of the Netherlands. Current IDs and FDs were assessed according to diagnostic criteria between 2014-2017. We estimated tetrachoric correlations between diagnoses and tested for sex differences. Additionally, we estimated the ratio of observed-to-expected frequency for combinations of diagnoses.

    Results:

    FDs and IDs are highly comorbid (odds ratios: 3.2-12.6) with associations stronger among male participants. All three-, four-, and five-condition diagnoses were observed more frequently than expected by chance.

    Conclusion:

    High rates of comorbidity between FDs and IDs suggest shared risk factors. Studies that aim to explain sex differences and the overrepresentation of specific combinations of IDs and FDs will be an important contribution to understanding the etiology of these conditions.



    Note:
    Funding Declaration: This project was supported by NIMH grant R01MH125902. The Lifelines initiative has been made possible by subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Groningen University and the Provinces in the North of the Netherlands (Drenthe, Friesland, Groningen). HvL was supported by a VENI grant from the Talent Program of the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWOZonMW 09150161810021).

    Conflicts of Interest: None.

    Ethical Approval: The Lifelines protocol has been approved by the UMCG Medical ethical committee under number 2007/152.

    Highlights:

     Internalizing disorders and functional disorders are highly comorbid.

     Irritable bowel syndrome is not as closely related to internalizing disorders as
    fibromyalgia and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.

     The association between functional disorders and internalizing disorders is larger
    in male participants.

     Combinations of functional disorders/internalizing disorders including three or
    more conditions occur more frequently than expected by chance.

    Suggested Citation:

    Thomas, Nathaniel and Gillespie, Nathan A. and Kendler, Kenneth S. and Oldehinkel, Albertine J. and Rosmalen, Judith G.M. and van Loo, Hanna M., Comorbidity and Sex Differences in Functional Disorders and Internalizing Disorders. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4785891 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4785891
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2024
    Dolphin, Apr 13, 2024
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    Peter Trewhitt and Hutan like this.
  2. Trish

    Trish Moderator Staff Member

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    If the diagnoses are based on questionnaires, this is most likely to be about overlapping questions, not necessarily overlapping conditions.
     
    Trish, Apr 13, 2024
    #2
    oldtimer, Peter Trewhitt, alktipping and 6 others like this.
  3. Hutan

    Hutan Moderator Staff Member

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    If anyone was in any doubt as to whether ME/CFS is regarded as a 'functional disorder', it is, (and it seems to be the latest name for hysteria; perhaps the BPS proponents think they have struck gold with a term that conceals what they are thinking so well)
    yes


    Here is the MINI:
    https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/docum...&doi=cd0609ea6d85ddaf335959cc96965f4fba452885
    The instructions in that pdf include

    Here are the questions from the module assessing major depressive disorder:

    If you answered yes to either of those questions (and I think almost by definition, people with ME/CFS would have to answer 'yes' to A2, you proceed to seven questions. These are:
    If you answered yes to just one of A1 or A2, you need to answer yes to 4 of those seven A3 questions in order to be diagnosed with MDD. If you answered yes to both A1 and A2, you just need to answer yes to 3 of those seven questions to be diagnosed with MDD.

    I think many people with ME/CFS who are not clinically depressed could answer yes to A2, and answer yes to 4 of the A3 questions for a particular 2 week period with a lot of PEM (trouble sleeping, talking or moving more slowly, feeling without energy, difficulty concentrating or making decisions). All of those responses could be due to their illness. Someone with gut issues could easily have problems with appetite or weight loss too.

    So, it really comes down to whether the investigators properly instructed the participants about not ticking the box if the issue is due to an 'organic cause', and if the person believes that they have an 'organic illness'.

    Basically, this is junk science
     
    Last edited: Apr 13, 2024
    Hutan, Apr 13, 2024
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  4. Hutan

    Hutan Moderator Staff Member

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    Criteria for ME/CFS is Fukuda.

    sure

    That's the USA NIH's National Institute of Mental Health. It has been giving the Virginia Commonwealth University around USD600,000 per year for the last three years for work on "AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH TO THE ETIOLOGY OF INTERNALIZING DISORDERS IN THE LIFELINES COHORT"
    https://taggs.hhs.gov/Detail/AwardDetail?arg_AwardNum=R01MH125902&arg_ProgOfficeCode=134
     
    Hutan, Apr 13, 2024
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  5. Hutan

    Hutan Moderator Staff Member

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    One of the authors, selected pretty much at random
    Kenneth S Kendler
    https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/biography-dr-kenneth-kendler
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7684780/
    Conclusion from this Thomas paper:
    Roll on the GWAS's from this team. What a nightmare.
     
    Hutan, Apr 13, 2024
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  6. Jonathan Edwards

    Jonathan Edwards Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Interesting that they have shared genetic variance when so far we have no genetic data for ME/CFS!!
     
    Jonathan Edwards, Apr 13, 2024
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    oldtimer, shak8, FMMM1 and 6 others like this.
  7. dave30th

    dave30th Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Kendler is the co-chief editor of Psychological Medicine—or was when I wrote to them. The other is a British BPS guy and colleague of the PACE folks. Enough said.
     
    dave30th, Apr 13, 2024
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  8. rvallee

    rvallee Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    A common complaint from MDs is that they can't tell the difference. Which is normal, without tests to validate, they usually can't tell the difference between most diseases anyway. And really the people behind this research should think of that and the worst part of this is that they likely did and saw nothing wrong with it anyway.
     
    rvallee, Apr 13, 2024
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    Trish, Peter Trewhitt, Hutan and 2 others like this.
  9. Dolphin

    Dolphin Senior Member (Voting Rights)

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    Dolphin, Jul 31, 2024
    #9
    Sean and Peter Trewhitt like this.

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