Indre Bileviciute Ljungar

Indre Bileviciute Ljungar, MD, PhD, is an Associated Professor in rehabiliation medicine at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital, Karolinska Institutet (a medical university in Solna), Sweden. Her research interests are: myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), stress exhaustion syndrome and chronic pain.

Talks and interviews

 * 2012, 7th [[Invest in ME International ME Conference] 2011 - One Year Experience of a Standardised Team-based Assessment of Suspected ME/CFS Patients] DVD available

Research studies

 * 2017, Identifying symptom subgroups in patients with ME/CFS – relationships to functioning and quality of life "'ABSTRACT - Background: It is still not clear whether the diagnosis Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) constitutes one single disease entity, as diagnosis depends on clinical case definitions. The variation of symptoms across individuals indicates important differences between individuals diagnosed with ME/CFS. Also, the variation in daily functioning and quality of life measures among subgroups of symptoms is still unclear. Purpose: The present study examines the associations between symptoms in ME/CFS, and evaluates the relationships between symptom subgroups, functioning and quality of life. Methods: Data were collected from 106 adults as part of the assessment at a tertiary specialist clinic for ME/CFS. Principal component analyses (PCA) were utilized to identify symptom subgroups, and the relationships with functioning and quality of life were evaluated using bivariate correlations. Results: The PCA suggested four statistically distinct and clinically meaningful subgroups of symptoms. The latent constructs were labeled Inflammatory, Pain, Neurocognitive, and Autonomic. All symptom subgroups correlated significantly with measures of fatigue, mood, functioning and quality of life. Notably, the correlations between symptom subgroups and criteria variables (e.g. mood) varied in strength, indicating a difference in the relative importance of symptom subgroups. Conclusions: Although tentative, the results from this study support previous research and suggest that there are important symptom subgroups among individuals with ME/CFS. Furthermore, these results indicate that symptom profiles may be of importance to understand the variation between individuals in the impact of symptoms on functioning. Thus, more research is warranted to validate these findings and investigate possible differences in etiology between patient subgroups.'"
 * 2016, Resistance exercise improves physical fatigue in women with fibromyalgia: a randomized controlled trial. "ABSTRACT: 'METHODS: A total of 130 women with FM (age 22-64 years) were included in this assessor-blinded randomized controlled multicenter trial examining the effects of person-centered progressive resistance exercise compared with an active control group. The intervention was performed twice a week for 15 weeks. Outcomes were five dimensions of fatigue measured with the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20)...RESULTS: A higher improvement was found at the post-treatment examination for change in the resistance exercise group, as compared to change in the active control group in the MFI-20 subscale of physical fatigue.'"
 * 2015, Computerized training improves verbal working memory in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: A pilot study."ABSTRACT: 'OBJECTIVE: Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome experience cognitive difficulties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of computerized training on working memory in this syndrome... SUBJECTS: Patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome who participated in a 6-month outpatient rehabilitation programme were included in the study. Eleven patients who showed signs of working memory deficit were recruited for additional memory training and 12 patients with no working memory deficit served as controls... RESULTS: Cognitive training increased working memory (p = 0.003) and general attention (p = 0.004) to the mean level. Short-term memory was also improved, but the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.052) vs prior training. The control group did not show any significant improvement in primary outcome measures.'"

Online presence

 * Facebook
 * Karolinska Institutet bio page
 * ResearchGate