Carroll, Susan, Chalder, Trudie, Hemingway, Cheryl et al. · European journal of paediatric neurology : EJPN : official journal of the European Paediatric Neurology Society · 2019 · DOI
This study compared teenagers with multiple sclerosis (MS) who experienced fatigue, teenagers with ME/CFS, and healthy teenagers to understand what factors contribute to severe fatigue. Researchers found that teenagers with MS who were fatigued and teenagers with ME/CFS had very similar patterns of fatigue and unhelpful thinking patterns about their symptoms, but teenagers with ME/CFS had normal brain function while those with MS had some cognitive difficulties. The study suggests that psychological approaches used successfully in ME/CFS might also help teenagers with MS who experience fatigue.
This study identifies psychological and behavioural factors shared between ME/CFS and a subset of MS patients with fatigue, suggesting that evidence-based psychological interventions already developed for ME/CFS could potentially be adapted for adolescents with MS-related fatigue. Understanding these modifiable factors is critical because fatigue severely disables adolescents and effective treatments remain lacking.
This study does not prove that psychological factors cause fatigue in either condition—it only shows associations. The cross-sectional design means we cannot determine whether unhelpful thinking patterns develop as a result of fatigue or contribute to it. Additionally, findings in adolescents may not directly generalize to adult ME/CFS populations.
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 →
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