ArticleBiochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular basis of disease2018
Metabolomic markers of fatigue: Association between circulating metabolome and fatigue in women with chronic widespread pain.
Article in Biochimica et biophysica acta. Molecular basis of disease, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 49 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Role of Bacteria and Its Derived Metabolites in Chronic Pain and Depression: Recent Findings and Research Progress.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2020Pooled it
- Urinary metabolites and fatigue in a population-based metabolomics study: an exploratory analysis.Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2026Article
- Serum metabolomic profiles associated with psychoneurological symptoms in women with early-stage breast cancer over one year.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Innovations in acute and chronic pain biomarkers: enhancing diagnosis and personalized therapy.Regional anesthesia and pain medicine · 2025Review
- Article
- Assessing the Genetic Causal Effects Between Blood Metabolites and Spinal Pain: A Bidirectional Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study.Journal of pain research · 2024Article
- Markers of Tissue Deterioration and Pain on Earth and in Space.Journal of pain research · 2024Article
- Psychophysiologic symptom relief therapy for chronic back pain: hypothesis and trial rationale.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Review
- Metabolomics and Microbiomics: New Potential Strategies in Chronic Pain Syndrome.Journal of pain research · 2022Article
- The role of pain and psychological distress in fatigue: a co-twin and within-person analysis of confounding and causal relations.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2022Article
- The "self" in pain: high levels of schema-enmeshment worsen fibromyalgia impact.BMC musculoskeletal disorders · 2021Article
- Role of the Intestinal Microbiome, Intestinal Barrier and Psychobiotics in Depression.Nutrients · 2021Review
- Metabolomics in chronic pain research.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2021Review
- Multi-omics examination of Q fever fatigue syndrome identifies similarities with chronic fatigue syndrome.Journal of translational medicine · 2020Article
- A laboratory approach for characterizing chronic fatigue: what does metabolomics tell us?Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2019Article
- Anti-Inflammatory Diets and Fatigue.Nutrients · 2019Review
- Gut microbiome and serum metabolome analyses identify molecular biomarkers and altered glutamate metabolism in fibromyalgia.EBioMedicine · 2019Article
- The association of sleep with metabolic pathways and metabolites: evidence from the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)-sodium feeding study.Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFatigue is a sensation of unbearable tiredness that frequently accompanies chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain (CWP) and inflammatory joint disease. Its mechanisms are poorly understood and there is a lack of effective biomarkers for diagnosis and onset prediction. We studied the circulating metabolome in a population sample characterised for CWP to identify biomarkers showing specificity for fatigue. MATERIAL AND
methodsUntargeted metabolomic profiling was conducted on fasting plasma and serum samples of 1106 females with and without CWP from the TwinsUK cohort. Linear mixed-effects models accounting for covariates were used to determine relationships between fatigue and metabolites. Receiver operating curve (ROC)-analysis was used to determine predictive value of metabolites for fatigue.
resultsWhile no association between fatigue and metabolites was identified in twins without CWP (n=711), in participants with CWP (n=395), levels of eicosapentaenoate (EPA) ω-3 fatty acid were significantly reduced in those with fatigue (β=-0.452±0.116; p=1.2×10
conclusionThe results of this agnostic metabolomics screening show that fatigue is metabolically distinct from CWP, and is associated with a decrease in circulating levels of EPA. Our panel of circulating metabolites provides the starting point for a diagnostic test for fatigue in CWP.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.