Bath doctor leads child fatigue research

An expert from Bath has won pounds730,000 to investigate chronicfatigue syndrome in children.

The ground-breaking research will be carried out by Dr EstherCrawley, who works at the city's Mineral Water Hospital.

She will be looking to get a better understanding of the cause,treatment and prevention of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and ME inchildren using a prestigious fellowship and funding.

The money is from the National Institute of Heath Research, whichhas awarded a clinician scientist fellowship to Dr Crawley,consultant paediatrician at the hospital - whose formal name is theRoyal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases.

Her study will be the first to look at CFS/ME in children in suchdetail.

It is a common childhood condition with one estimate reckoning itaffects two per cent of children, with youngsters aged between 10and 12 most likely to be affected.

Dr Crawley, who also works at the Centre for Child and AdolescentHealth at the University of Bristol, said: "I want to answer themany unresolved questions about the best ways to treat and managethe patients for whom I am responsible."

Research from 2000 concluded the majority of children diagnosedwith CFS first developed the illness during the autumn school term.

It is thought that the stress some children experience at school,combined with the arrival of infectious illnesses brought on by thewinter and the classroom environment can trigger the illness.

Dr Crawley will use the University of Bristol's Avon LongitudinalStudy of Parents and Children, also known as Children of the 90s,which is a database of 14,000 youngsters born in the former Avon inthe 1990s, in her research.

She will also develop and test an education package for childrenwho are missing school because of fatigue or tiredness, to see ifdevelopment of full CFS/ME can be prevented. The economic impact ofschool absences due to fatigue will also be measured.

Dr Crawley, who has been involved in the development of theGovernment watchdog the National Institute for Health and ClinicalExcellence's guidance for the condition, added: "This research iscrucial to help us to understand the risk factors and prevalence ofCFS/ME in children, and to give us an improved understanding of themost effective ways to treat and prevent the development of thiscondition.

"Current models of care for children are based on adult evidenceand there is no information on outcome, treatment or prognosis forchildren who are severely affected, or the very young."

The project will begin in the next few weeks and will be carriedout over five years.

The hospital runs the largest regional paediatric CFS/ME clinicalservice in the UK, and has a national reputation.