Leorey Saligan

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Source:NIH

Leorey N. Saligan, Ph.D., R.N., C.R.N.P., is a Assistant Clinical Investigator in the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) of the United States National Institutes of Health.

His research interests center around fatigue, particularly fatigue experienced by cancer patients as a result of his parents both being diagnosed with cancer. He has developed an exercise intervention geared to improve aerobic metabolism of patients in order to potentially reduce oxidative stress, inflammation, and fatigue.

Dr Saligan is one of the Associate Investigators assigned to the NIH Post-Infectious ME/CFS Study.[1]

Dr Saligan serves on the editorial board of the journal, Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior, published on behalf of the IACFS/ME.[2]

Controversy[edit | edit source]

In a very small uncontrolled study (n = 9) exploring the relationship between gene expression and pain catastrophizing in fibromyalgia, Saligan and his co-authors used a score of 16 on the Pain Catastrophizing Scale as the threshold for determination of "high catastrophizing".[3] That is in stark contrast with the threshold of 30 recommended by the scale's creators to indicate a "clinically relevant level of catastrophizing," and a mean score for 851 injured workers was 20.90.[4] Even the high catastrophizing subgroup (n = 5) in the study averaged a pain catastrophizing score of only 23.6, well below the recommended threshold. The authors concluded that "specific physiological pathways may possibly delineate pain and catastrophizing mechanisms."

ME/CFS Common Data Element (CDE) Project[edit | edit source]

Member on both the Fatigue Working Group and the Pain Working Group of the Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Common Data Element (CDE) Project sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.[5]

Notable studies[edit | edit source]

  • 2017, Public Review - Draft of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Common Data Elements (CDE); Fatigue Subgroup Materials[6] - (Full Text)
  • 2016, Different Phenotyping Approaches Lead to Dissimilar Biologic Profiles in Men With Chronic Fatigue After Radiation Therapy[7]

Editorial[edit | edit source]

Talks and interviews[edit | edit source]

Online presence[edit | edit source]

  • Address:
Symptom Biology Unit
NINR
Building 3, Room 5E14
3 Center Drive
Bethesda, MD 20892
United States
Phone: 301-451-1685
Email: saliganl@mail.nih.gov

Learn more[edit | edit source]

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. https://www.cdc.gov/cdcgrandrounds/pdf/archives/2016/feb2016.pdf page 54
  2. "Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior". tandfonline.com. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  3. Gene expression profiles of fatigued fibromyalgia patients with different categories of pain and catastrophizing: A preliminary report
  4. The Pain Catastrophizing Scale: User Manual
  5. "Complete Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome CDE Roster". NIH. Retrieved October 11, 2019.
  6. Cella, David; Dimmock, Mary; Friedberg, Fred; Lin, Jin-Mann Sally; Nacul, Luis; Saligan, Leorey (December 2017), NINDS/CDC Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Common Data Elements (CDE); Fatigue Subgroup Materials (PDF)
  7. Feng LR, Dickinson K, Kline N, Saligan LN. Different phenotyping approaches lead to dissimilar biologic profiles in men with chronic fatigue following radiation therapy Exit Disclaimer. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2016 Aug 9. pii: S0885-3924(16)30225-1. PMID: 27521284
  8. Renner, Michael; Saligan, Leorey N. (2016), "Understanding cancer-related fatigue: advancing the science", Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior, 4 (4): 189-192, doi:10.1080/21641846.2016.1246513