Abstract:
Two hundred and twenty-five subjects, including normal volunteers and patients with previously documented seasonal affective disorder (SAD),chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), Cushing’s syndrome, Addison’s disease and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), completed a self-rated inventory of reported sensitivity to various chemical exposures.
Patients with CFS, Addison’s disease and SAD self-reported more sensitivity to chemical exposures than normal controls. In addition, women reported more sensitivity than men.
This report suggests that chemical sensitivity may be a relevant area to explore in certain medical and psychiatric populations. A possible relationship between reported chemical sensitivity and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis functioning is discussed.
Source: Nawab SS, Miller CS, Dale JK, Greenberg BD, Friedman TC, Chrousos GP, Straus SE, Rosenthal NE. Self-reported sensitivity to chemical exposures in five clinical populations and healthy controls. Psychiatry Res. 2000 Jul 24;95(1):67-74. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10904124