UW Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research Center awarded funding for additional four years

The UW’s Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Cooperative Research Center, based at Harborview Medical Center, is one of three in the nation to be awarded funding by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The UW center, directed by Dr. Dedra Buchwald, associate professor of medicine, first received funding four years ago. The new award will cover an additonal four years and provide nearly $3 million in direct costs.

Studies at the UW center include an examination of identical and non-identical twins, including twin sets in which one twin has CFS and one does not. Twin studies have been frequently used in medical research of diseases when the cause is not known to examine the relative contributions of heredity and environmental factors. Small pilot projects to pursue new scientific leads or ideas are also conducted.

CFS is a puzzling disorder in which previously healthy adults or adolescents develop severe unexplained fatigue that persists beyond six months, often in association with a spectrum of additional complaints such as sleep disorders, problems with mental concentration and memory, muscle and joint aches and tender lymph nodes. The condition was first recognized in the early 1980s, but researchers are still not sure if it is a new illness or only newly identified. After nearly 20 years of research efforts, the cause or causes of CFS remain mysterious.

The other two CFS research centers receiving funding were at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark, N.J. and at the University of Miami. The Newark center was one of the first funded when NIAID established CFS Research Centers in 1991; the Miami center is a new one.

Harborview Medical Center, in addition to housing the CFS Cooperative Research Center, is also the site of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Clinic for patients with the condition. ¶