Kanchanatawan, Buranee, Sirivichayakul, Sunee, Thika, Supaksorn et al. · Metabolic brain disease · 2017 · DOI
This study looked at physical symptoms like fatigue, muscle pain, and flu-like feelings in people with schizophrenia. Researchers found that more than half of schizophrenia patients experienced these symptoms, which were linked to depression, anxiety, and problems with memory and attention. The symptoms appeared to be connected to changes in how the body processes tryptophan, an amino acid, and how the immune system responds to these breakdown products.
While this study focuses on schizophrenia, the findings are relevant to ME/CFS research because both conditions involve physio-somatic symptoms and potential dysregulation of the tryptophan catabolite pathway. Understanding how immune responses to tryptophan metabolites contribute to fatigue, pain, and cognitive dysfunction in one condition may illuminate similar mechanisms in ME/CFS, potentially opening new diagnostic and therapeutic avenues.
This study does not prove that tryptophan catabolite immune responses *cause* physio-somatic symptoms—only that they are associated. The cross-sectional design cannot establish temporal relationships or directionality. The findings in schizophrenia patients may not directly apply to ME/CFS or other chronic fatigue conditions without further investigation.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Kanchanatawan, Buranee, Sirivichayakul, Sunee, Thika, Supaksorn, Ruxrungtham, Kiat, Carvalho, André F, Geffard, Michel, et al. (2017). Physio-somatic symptoms in schizophrenia: association with depression, anxiety, neurocognitive deficits and the tryptophan catabolite pathway.. Metabolic brain disease. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11011-017-9982-7
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-kanchanatawan-2017-physio-somatic,
author = {Kanchanatawan, Buranee and Sirivichayakul, Sunee and Thika, Supaksorn and Ruxrungtham, Kiat and Carvalho, André F and Geffard, Michel and Anderson, George and Noto, Cristiano and Ivanova, Rada and Maes, Michael},
title = {Physio-somatic symptoms in schizophrenia: association with depression, anxiety, neurocognitive deficits and the tryptophan catabolite pathway.},
journal = {Metabolic brain disease},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.1007/s11011-017-9982-7},
note = {PubMed: 28258445},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kanchanatawan-2017-physio-somatic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kanchanatawan-2017-physio-somatic
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