Adams, Denise, Wu, Taixiang, Yasui, Yutaka et al. · Journal of evidence-based medicine · 2012 · DOI
This study looked at whether including research studies published in Chinese would change what we know about treating chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and infectious mononucleosis with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Researchers searched both English and Chinese databases for high-quality studies. While searching Chinese databases found many more studies than English databases, most of these studies had serious design problems and couldn't be used to draw reliable conclusions.
This study highlights a critical gap in the global evidence base for ME/CFS: even when substantially more research exists in non-English sources, methodological weaknesses can prevent that research from being reliably used to guide treatment. Understanding these limitations is essential for patients and clinicians seeking evidence-based information about TCM or other interventions for ME/CFS.
This study does not prove that TCM is ineffective for CFS; rather, it demonstrates that the available published research—both in English and Chinese—is not of sufficient quality to make evidence-based claims either supporting or refuting TCM use. The absence of usable evidence is not the same as evidence of absence of benefit.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Adams, Denise, Wu, Taixiang, Yasui, Yutaka, Aung, Steven, & Vohra, Sunita (2012). Systematic reviews of TCM trials: how does inclusion of Chinese trials affect outcome?. Journal of evidence-based medicine. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-5391.2012.01173.x
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-adams-2012-systematic-reviews,
author = {Adams, Denise and Wu, Taixiang and Yasui, Yutaka and Aung, Steven and Vohra, Sunita},
title = {Systematic reviews of TCM trials: how does inclusion of Chinese trials affect outcome?},
journal = {Journal of evidence-based medicine},
year = {2012},
doi = {10.1111/j.1756-5391.2012.01173.x},
note = {PubMed: 23557472},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/adams-2012-systematic-reviews},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/adams-2012-systematic-reviews
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