Collin, Simon M, Nijs, Jo, Meeus, Mira et al. · Pain physician · 2017
This study tested how people with ME/CFS, people with multiple sclerosis (MS), and healthy people respond to pain. Researchers found that people with ME/CFS have lower pain thresholds and more pain amplification than people with MS, suggesting their nervous systems may process pain differently. These findings suggest that ME/CFS pain may involve a different biological mechanism than MS pain.
Pain is a common and debilitating symptom in ME/CFS, yet its underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. This study provides evidence that ME/CFS pain involves overactive pain amplification (central sensitization) distinct from other conditions like MS, potentially opening new avenues for targeted pain management. Understanding whether pain in ME/CFS operates through different neurobiological mechanisms than other illnesses could lead to more tailored clinical interventions.
This cross-sectional study cannot establish causation or longitudinal relationships between pain mechanisms and ME/CFS symptoms. The relatively small sample sizes limit generalizability to broader ME/CFS populations. The study describes associations between pain measures and symptoms but does not prove that altered pain processing causes fatigue or cognitive dysfunction, or vice versa.
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
Collin, Simon M, Nijs, Jo, Meeus, Mira, Polli, Andrea, Willekens, Barbara, & Ickmans, Kelly (2017). Endogenous Pain Facilitation Rather Than Inhibition Differs Between People with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, and Controls: An Observational Study.. Pain physician. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28535557/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-collin-2017-endogenous-pain,
author = {Collin, Simon M and Nijs, Jo and Meeus, Mira and Polli, Andrea and Willekens, Barbara and Ickmans, Kelly},
title = {Endogenous Pain Facilitation Rather Than Inhibition Differs Between People with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, and Controls: An Observational Study.},
journal = {Pain physician},
year = {2017},
note = {PubMed: 28535557},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/collin-2017-endogenous-pain},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/collin-2017-endogenous-pain
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