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Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, MCS
Annex C
Main proposals from the NIEHS conference on experimental research in MCS 1996 (Interagency report, 1998)
Key Recommendations:
- Studies should be initiated to test hypotheses in the domain of non-neurogenic inflammation, determining whether inflammation is present in symptomatic tissues of patients who have MCS and if it is
associated with a heightened neurosensory response.
- Conduct longitudinal studies to test hypotheses:
(1)
A psychoneuroimmunological component is correlatively or causally associated with development of MCS, and
(2)
Stress is associated with MCS as a chronic disabling disease.
- Conduct double-blind placebo-controlled challenge studies performed in an environmentally controlled hospital facility coupled with rigorous documentation of both objective and subjective
responses.
- Conduct interviews with MCS patients to ascertain episodes consistent with a learning interpretation of their symptoms.
- Conduct balanced placebo-controlled studies to separate the effects of chemical expectation from chemical effects in MCS.
- Evaluate the possibility of olfactory hypersensitivity in MCS patients through further research.
- Systematically evaluate the efficacy of systematic desensitisation as a treatment for MCS disorders.
- Consider single-case designs as an alternative to group comparisons, given the heterogeneity of subjects, symptoms, and chemical exposures.
- Develop a generally accepted structured interview that is based on common patterns of patient symptoms.
- One design for protocols to initiate and test for sensitisation in MCS patients could involve the same sensitisation procedures but compare outcomes under conditions of masking and unmasking.
- Test the hypothesis that MCS patients are more susceptible to initiation of context-dependent sensitisation than are control subjects.
- Longitudinal studies with repeated measures would enable evaluation of fluctuations over time.
- Conduct laboratory animal studies to assess neural time-dependent sensitisation mechanisms.
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Version 1.0 March 2005, © Danish Environmental Protection Agency
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