Renee Taylor

Renee R. Taylor, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist and professor of occupational therapy at University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois. She is director of the University of Illinois Model of Human Occupation Clearinghouse.

Education

 * 1997 - PhD, Clinical-Community Psychology, De Paul University, 1997
 * 1995 - MA, Clinical-Community Psychology, De Paul University, 1995
 * 1992 - BA, Psychology, Northwestern University, 1992

Books

 * 2003, The Handbook of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by Leonard Jason, Patricia Fennell and Renée R. Taylor.
 * 2001, Clinician's Guide To Controversial Illnesses: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, by Renée R. Taylor, Fred Friedberg, and Leonard A. Jason

Notable studies

 * 2016, Tracking post-infectious fatigue in clinic using routine Lab tests."ABSTRACT:'BACKGROUND: While biomarkers for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) are beginning to emerge they typically require a highly specialized clinical laboratory. We hypothesized that subsets of commonly measured laboratory markers used in combination could support the diagnosis of post-infectious CFS (PI-CFS) in adolescents following infectious mononucleosis (IM) and help determine who might develop persistence of symptoms. METHODS: Routine clinical laboratory markers were collected prospectively in 301 mono-spot positive adolescents, 4 % of whom developed CFS (n = 13). At 6, 12, and 24 months post-diagnosis with IM, 59 standard tests were performed including metabolic profiling, liver enzyme panel, hormone profiles, complete blood count (CBC), differential white blood count (WBC), salivary cortisol, and urinalysis....RESULTS: Lower ACTH levels at 6 months post-IM diagnosis were highly predictive of CFS (AUC p = 0.02). ACTH levels in CFS overlapped with healthy controls at 12 months, but again showed a trend towards a deficiency at 24 months. Conversely, estradiol levels depart significantly from normal at 12 months only to recover at 24 months (AUC p = 0.02). Finally, relative neutrophil count showed a significant departure from normal at 24 months in CFS (AUC p = 0.01). Expression of these markers evolved differently over time between groups. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results suggest that serial assessment of stress and sex hormones as well as the relative proportion of innate immune cells measured using standard clinical laboratory tests may support the diagnosis of PI-CFS in adolescents with IM.'"
 * 2014, Predictors of post-infectious [[chronic fatigue syndrome] in adolescents]"'Abstract - This study focused on identifying risk factors for adolescent post-infectious chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), utilizing a prospective, nested case–control longitudinal design in which over 300 teenagers with infectious mononucleosis (IM) were identified through primary care sites and followed. Baseline variables that were gathered several months following IM, included autonomic symptoms, days in bed since IM, perceived stress, stressful life events, family stress, difficulty functioning and attending school, family stress, and psychiatric disorders. A number of variables were predictors of post-infectious CFS at six months; however, when autonomic symptoms were used as a control variable, only days spent in bed since mono was a significant predictor. Step-wise logistic regression findings indicated that baseline autonomic symptoms as well as days spent in bed since mono, which reflect the severity of illness, were the only significant predictors of those who met CFS criteria at six months.'"
 * 2012, Cytokine expression profiles of immune imbalance in post-mononucleosis chronic fatigue
 * 2010, Abnormalities in pH handling by peripheral muscle and potential regulation by the autonomic nervous system in chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2001, Measuring Attributions About Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"'Summary - Three studies explored the effects of different diagnostic labels and different types of recommended treatments for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome upon attributions regarding its cause, nature, severity, contagion, prognosis, and treatment. Attributions for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome appear to change based upon the diagnostic label given for the syndrome and the type of treatment recommended. Results suggest that, in comparison to the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome label, the Myalgic Enceph-alopathy label prompts attributions that this syndrome is a serious condition associated with a physiologically-based etiology, a poor prognosis, and decreased potential for organ donation. Results also suggest that, compared with cognitive coping skills treatment, treatment with ampligen appears to be associated with perceptions of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as an accurate diagnosis and as a severely disabling condition.'"
 * 2001, Subtypes of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Review of Findings"'Summary - Most studies of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) have been based on patients recruited from primary or tertiary care settings. Patients from such settings might not be typical of patients in the general population and may not accurately reflect the heterogeneity among individuals diagnosed with this condition. The current paper reviews four community-based studies that examined subtypes of individuals with CFS. Distinctions between subtype groups based on sociodemographics, illness onset and duration, stressful precipitating events, symptom frequency, and comorbidity characteristics are made with respect to outcome measures of fatigue and symptom severity, functional ability, and psychiatric comorbidity."
 * 2000, Chronic fatigue syndrome: sociodemographic subtypes in a community-based sample.
 * 2000, Defining Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Methodological Challenges"'Abstract - Accurate diagnosis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is greatly complicated by the vague wording of many of the major diagnostic criteria (i.e., substantial reductions in previous levels of occupational, educational, social, or personal activities) and the absence of guidelines for health care professionals to follow. The lack of operationally explicit criteria has forced health care professionals to rely heavily on their own clinical judgement, which may be biased by personal and highly idiosyncratic factors. Thus, in the case of CFS, the lack of consensus among clinicians regarding the interpretation and application of the diagnostic criteria has likely produced problems in diagnostic reliability. Data from a recent community based epidemiologic study are presented to illustrate these problems and provide recommendations for improving criterion reliability.'"
 * 1997, A Screening Instrument for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Reliability and Validity

Online presence

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