Collinge, William, Yarnold, Paul, Soltysik, Robert · North American journal of medical sciences · 2013 · DOI
This study tested a website tool called SMARTLog that helps people with fibromyalgia track their symptoms and receive personalized feedback. Patients who used the tool several times a week for a few months reported improvements in pain, fatigue, memory, mood, and sleep. The more consistently people used the tool, the greater their symptom improvements tended to be.
Digital self-monitoring tools may offer accessible, low-cost symptom management strategies for ME/CFS patients, who often have limited access to specialized care. Understanding how behavioral self-monitoring and personalized feedback can reduce symptom burden may inform development of scalable remote interventions for post-viral and chronic fatigue conditions.
This study does not prove that the SMARTLog tool itself causes symptom improvement—improvements could result from increased self-awareness, attention, placebo effects, or natural fluctuations in fibromyalgia. The lack of a control group makes it impossible to determine whether outcomes exceed what occurs without the intervention. Results may not generalize to ME/CFS patients, as fibromyalgia and ME/CFS have distinct pathophysiological mechanisms.
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
Collinge, William, Yarnold, Paul, & Soltysik, Robert (2013). Fibromyalgia Symptom Reduction by Online Behavioral Self-monitoring, Longitudinal Single Subject Analysis and Automated Delivery of Individualized Guidance.. North American journal of medical sciences. https://doi.org/10.4103/1947-2714.118920
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-collinge-2013-fibromyalgia-symptom,
author = {Collinge, William and Yarnold, Paul and Soltysik, Robert},
title = {Fibromyalgia Symptom Reduction by Online Behavioral Self-monitoring, Longitudinal Single Subject Analysis and Automated Delivery of Individualized Guidance.},
journal = {North American journal of medical sciences},
year = {2013},
doi = {10.4103/1947-2714.118920},
note = {PubMed: 24251273},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/collinge-2013-fibromyalgia-symptom},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/collinge-2013-fibromyalgia-symptom
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