Clery, Philippa, Royston, Alexander, Driver, Katie et al. · BMJ open · 2022 · DOI
This review looked at studies on treating anxiety and depression in children with ME/CFS. Researchers found only 16 studies since 1991 that measured these mental health symptoms. While some treatments like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) showed promise, the quality of evidence was poor and there were too few studies to say which treatments actually work best for children with ME/CFS who have anxiety or depression.
Many children with ME/CFS suffer from depression and anxiety, but there is critically little research on what treatments actually help. This review reveals a significant evidence gap and highlights the urgent need for high-quality trials testing interventions specifically designed for these young patients' mental health needs.
This review does not prove that any single treatment is effective for anxiety and depression in pediatric ME/CFS—the evidence quality is too poor and studies too few to make such claims. It also does not establish causation between ME/CFS and depression/anxiety, nor does it demonstrate that treating mental health symptoms improves ME/CFS outcomes themselves.
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
Clery, Philippa, Royston, Alexander, Driver, Katie, Bailey, Jasmine, Crawley, Esther, & Loades, Maria (2022). What treatments work for anxiety and depression in children and adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome? An updated systematic review.. BMJ open. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051358
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-clery-2022-what-treatments,
author = {Clery, Philippa and Royston, Alexander and Driver, Katie and Bailey, Jasmine and Crawley, Esther and Loades, Maria},
title = {What treatments work for anxiety and depression in children and adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome? An updated systematic review.},
journal = {BMJ open},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051358},
note = {PubMed: 35105619},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/clery-2022-what-treatments},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/clery-2022-what-treatments
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