Chronic fatigue linked to genes

Chronic fatigue syndrome, often dismissed as the imaginings of depressed and whiny people, is actually caused by genetic mutations that impair the central nervous system's ability to adapt to stressful situations, according to a major new study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Small changes in many of the genes in the brain prevent the nervous system from rebounding from everyday stress and less frequent, stronger insults, eventually triggering a cascade of molecular responses that leave the patient severely debilitated, researchers reported Thursday in 14 separate papers in the journal Pharmacogenomics.

''This is the first credible evidence for a biological basis" for the syndrome, said the CDC director, Dr. Julie Gerberding.The CDC estimates that more than 1 million Americans have the condition.

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