A Prospective Study of Infectious Mononucleosis in College Students
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Publication Title
International Journal of Psychiatry
Keywords
Chronic fatigue syndrome, Mononucleosis, Myalgic encephalomyelitis, Prospective study, Epstein barr virus, College students
Abstract
Background
The present study aims to prospectively investigate possible biological and psychological factors present in college students who will go on to develop chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) following Infectious Mononucleosis (IM). Identification of risk factors predisposing patients towards developing CFS may help to understand the underlying mechanisms and ultimately prevent its occurrence. Our study is enrolling healthy college students over the age of 18. Enrollment began in March of 2013 and is ongoing.
Methods
Biological and psychological data are collected when students are well (Stage 1), when they develop IM (Stage 2), and approximately 6 months after IM diagnosis (Stage 3).
Results
Two case studies demonstrate the progression of student symptomology across all three stages.
Conclusion
The Case Studies presented illustrate the usefulness of a prospective research design that tracks healthy students, following their trajectory of IM illness to either a) full recovery or b) diagnosis with CFS.
Recommended Citation
Jason, L. A., Katz, B., Gleason, K., McManimen, S., Sunnquist, M., & Thorpe, T. (2017). A Prospective Study of Infectious Mononucleosis in College Students. International journal of psychiatry (Overland Park), 2(1).
Comments
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.