Crawley, Esther · Pediatric health, medicine and therapeutics · 2017 · DOI
This review examines ME/CFS in children, showing it is a common condition that significantly affects children and their families. The good news is that most children improve when they receive specialized treatment from doctors who understand this illness. The review summarizes what we know about how many children get ME/CFS, what factors may be involved, and what treatments have evidence supporting them.
Understanding pediatric ME/CFS is critical because this condition affects children during crucial developmental years and can derail education, social development, and family functioning. This review provides evidence that specialist treatment is effective, offering hope to families and supporting investment in pediatric-specific clinical services and research.
This review does not establish causal mechanisms for ME/CFS or definitively prove why some children recover better than others with treatment. The review synthesizes existing literature rather than presenting original experimental data, so findings depend on the quality and consistency of the studies reviewed. It does not provide detailed mechanisms explaining which specific treatment components are most effective or how they work.
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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Primary citation
Crawley, Esther (2017). Pediatric chronic fatigue syndrome: current perspectives.. Pediatric health, medicine and therapeutics. https://doi.org/10.2147/PHMT.S126253
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-crawley-2017-pediatric-chronic,
author = {Crawley, Esther},
title = {Pediatric chronic fatigue syndrome: current perspectives.},
journal = {Pediatric health, medicine and therapeutics},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.2147/PHMT.S126253},
note = {PubMed: 29722371},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/crawley-2017-pediatric-chronic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/crawley-2017-pediatric-chronic
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