Barron, Diana F, Cohen, Bernard A, Geraghty, Michael T et al. · The Journal of pediatrics · 2002 · DOI
This study compared how flexible the joints are in children with ME/CFS versus healthy children. Researchers found that children with ME/CFS had much more joint flexibility than healthy children—60% of children with ME/CFS had highly flexible joints compared to only 24% of healthy children. This suggests that joint hypermobility (unusually flexible joints) may be more common in ME/CFS.
This study identifies a potential structural/connective tissue feature associated with ME/CFS in children, which may help identify subgroups of patients or suggest new avenues for understanding disease mechanisms. Understanding the relationship between joint hypermobility and ME/CFS could inform diagnostic approaches and reveal whether hypermobility contributes to symptom severity or functional impairment.
This study does not prove that joint hypermobility causes ME/CFS or vice versa—it only shows they occur together more often than by chance. It does not establish whether hypermobility is present before, during, or after ME/CFS onset, nor does it explain the biological mechanism linking the two conditions. The choice of dermatology clinic controls may not represent the general population, potentially affecting generalizability.
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 →
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.