Abigail Brown

Abigail A. Brown, M.A., is a Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student, at the Center for Community Research, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Doctoral Dissertation

 * 2017 - Investigating Post-Exertional Malaise as a Core Symptom of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Meta-Analytic Approach

Book chapter

 * 2013, The implications of sensitization and kindling for chronic fatigue syndrome

Notable studies

 * 2017, A content analysis of chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis in the news from 1987 to 2013"Abstract - Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyze the content of American newspaper articles (n=214) from 1987 to 2013, in order to understand how the public digests information related to Chronic Fatigue syndrome, a controversial and misunderstood illness. Methods: A novel codebook derived from the scientific literature was applied to 214 newspaper articles collected from Lexis Nexis Academic®. These articles were coded quantitatively and frequency tables were created to delineate the variables as they appeared in the articles. Results: The etiology was portrayed as organic in 64.5% (n=138) of the articles, and there was no mention of case definitions or diagnostic criteria in 56.1% (n=120) of the articles. The most common comorbidity was depression, appearing in 22.9% (n=49) of the articles. In 55.6% (n=119) of the articles, there was no mention of prevalence rates. In 50.9% (n=109) of the articles, there was no mention of any form of treatment for the illness. A total of 19.4% (n=42) of the headlines mislabeled the name of the illness. Discussion: Based on descriptive statistics of all 214 coded articles, media communicated mixed messages for salient variables such as the name of the illness, its etiology and treatment."
 * 2016, Mortality in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome
 * 2016, The Relationship between Age and Illness Duration in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"'Abstract:Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a debilitating illness, but it is unclear if patient age and illness duration might affect symptoms and functioning of patients. In the current study, participants were categorized into four groups based upon age (under or over age 55) and illness duration (more or less than 10 years). The groups were compared on functioning and symptoms. Findings indicated that those who were older with a longer illness duration had significantly higher levels of mental health functioning than those who were younger with a shorter or longer illness duration and the older group with a shorter illness duration. The results suggest that older patients with an illness duration of over 10 years have significantly higher levels of mental health functioning than the three other groups. For symptoms, the younger/longer illness duration group had significantly worse immune and autonomic domains than the older/longer illness group. In addition, the younger patients with a longer illness duration displayed greater autonomic and immune symptoms in comparison to the older group with a longer illness duration. These findings suggest that both age and illness duration need to be considered when trying to understand the influence of these factors on patients."
 * 2016, Are Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome different illnesses? A preliminary analysis (FULL TEXT) "Abstract - Considerable discussion has transpired regarding whether chronic fatigue syndrome is a distinct illness from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. A prior study contrasted the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis International Consensus Criteria (ME-ICC; Carruthers et al., 2011) with the Fukuda et al. (1994) CFS criteria and found that the ME-ICC identified a subset of patients with greater functional impairment and physical, mental, and cognitive problems than the larger group who met Fukuda et al. (1994) criteria (Brown et al., 2013). The current study analyzed two discrete data sets and found that the ME-ICC identified more impaired individuals with more severe symptomatology."
 * 2016, Identifying Key Symptoms Differentiating Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome from Multiple Sclerosis
 * 2015, Comparing and contrasting consensus versus empirical domains. Abstract
 * 2015, Chronic fatigue syndrome versus systemic exertion intolerance disease Abstract - Background: The Institute of Medicine has recommended a change in the name and criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), renaming the illness systemic exertion intolerance disease (SEID). The new SEID case definition requires substantial reductions or impairments in the ability to engage in pre-illness activities, unrefreshing sleep, post-exertional malaise, and either cognitive impairment or orthostatic intolerance. Purpose: In the current study, samples were generated through several different methods and were used to compare this new case definition to previous case definitions for CFS, the International Consensus Criteria for myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME-ICC), the Canadian myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) definition, as well as a case definition developed through empirical methods. Methods: We used a cross-sectional design with samples from tertiary care settings, a BioBank sample, and other forums. Seven hundred and ninety-six patients from the USA, Great Britain, and Norway completed the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire. Results: Findings indicated that the SEID criteria identified 88% of participants in the samples analyzed, which is comparable to the 92% that met the Fukuda criteria. The SEID case definition was compared to a four-item empiric criteria, and findings indicated that the four-item empiric criteria identified a smaller, more functionally limited and symptomatic group of patients. Conclusion: The recently developed SEID criteria appears to identify a group comparable in size to the Fukuda et al. criteria, but a larger group of patients than the Canadian ME/CFS and ME criteria, and selects more patients who have less impairment and fewer symptoms than a four-item empiric criteria.
 * 2015, Factor Analysis of the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire: Identifying Core Domains (FULL TEXT)
 * 2015, Test–retest reliability of the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire"'Methods: Test–retest reliability of the measure was examined with a sample of 26 adults self-identifying as having either ME/CFS, ME, and/or CFS and 25 adults who did not self-identify as having these illnesses and were otherwise healthy controls. Results: Overall, the majority of items on the DSQ exhibited good to excellent test–retest reliability, with Pearson's or kappa correlation coefficients that were 0.70 or higher.'"
 * 2014, Examining case definition criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis "Abstract - Background: Considerable controversy has transpired regarding the core features of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Current case definitions differ in the number and types of symptoms required. This ambiguity impedes the search for biological markers and effective treatments. Purpose: This study sought to empirically operationalize symptom criteria and identify which symptoms best characterize the illness. Methods: Patients (n = 236) and controls (n = 86) completed the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire, rating the frequency and severity of 54 symptoms. Responses were compared to determine the threshold of frequency/severity ratings that best distinguished patients from controls. A Classification and Regression Tree (CART) algorithm was used to identify the combination of symptoms that most accurately classified patients and controls. Results: A third of controls met the symptom criteria of a common CFS case definition when just symptom presence was required; however, when frequency/severity requirements were raised, only 5% met the criteria. Employing these higher frequency/severity requirements, the CART algorithm identified three symptoms that accurately classified 95.4% of participants as patient or control: fatigue/extreme tiredness, inability to focus on multiple things simultaneously, and experiencing a dead/heavy feeling after starting to exercise. Conclusions: Minimum frequency/severity thresholds should be specified in symptom criteria to reduce the likelihood of misclassification. Future research should continue to seek empirical support of the core symptoms of ME and CFS to further progress the search for biological markers and treatments."
 * 2014, Validating a measure of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome symptomatology."'Methods: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to establish the underlying factor structure of the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire (DSQ) using a well-characterized sample of individuals (92.6% met the Fukuda et al. criteria and/or the Clinical Canadian Criteria) and this structure was then tested on a less stringently recruited sample of individuals utilizing a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Convergent and discriminant validity of the DSQ were also examined utilizing alternative measures of symptomatology and functioning. Results: A three-factor solution was found using EFA (Neuroendocrine, Autonomic, and Immune Symptoms; Neurological/Cognitive Dysfunction; Post-Exertional Malaise) and the fit of this factor structure was adequate for the second sample. The DSQ was found to have good convergent and discriminant validity. Conclusions: The DSQ is a valid tool for assessing ME/CFS symptoms. There may be two core ME/CFS symptom clusters: post-exertional malaise and cognitive dysfunction.'"
 * 2013, Contrasting chronic fatigue syndrome versus myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. Abstract
 * 2013, Energy conservation/envelope theory interventions Abstract

Online presence

 * ResearchGate
 * Google Scholar