Dinan, T G, Majeed, T, Lavelle, E et al. · Psychoneuroendocrinology · 1997 · DOI
This study tested whether a specific brain chemical system called serotonin works properly in ME/CFS patients. Researchers gave patients and healthy people a medication that activates serotonin receptors, then measured how the body's stress-response system (the HPA axis) reacted. They found that ME/CFS patients had a weaker response than healthy people, suggesting this brain system doesn't function normally in ME/CFS.
This study provides mechanistic evidence that HPA axis dysfunction in ME/CFS may involve a specific neurochemical defect rather than being purely psychological. Understanding how serotonin signaling fails in ME/CFS could guide development of more targeted treatments and validates biological abnormalities in the condition.
This study does not prove that serotonin dysfunction is the primary cause of ME/CFS, only that it is associated with the condition. It does not establish whether this defect is present in all ME/CFS patients or whether it causes the fatigue symptoms directly. The findings are correlational and do not explain the downstream consequences of this blunted response.
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
Dinan, T G, Majeed, T, Lavelle, E, Scott, L V, Berti, C, & Behan, P (1997). Blunted serotonin-mediated activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in chronic fatigue syndrome.. Psychoneuroendocrinology. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0306-4530(97)00002-4
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-dinan-1997-blunted-serotonin,
author = {Dinan, T G and Majeed, T and Lavelle, E and Scott, L V and Berti, C and Behan, P},
title = {Blunted serotonin-mediated activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis in chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Psychoneuroendocrinology},
year = {1997},
doi = {10.1016/s0306-4530(97)00002-4},
note = {PubMed: 9226729},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/dinan-1997-blunted-serotonin},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/dinan-1997-blunted-serotonin
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