Dooley, Ming, Vukelic, April, Jim, Lysander · Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2024 · DOI
This review looked at studies about treatments for conditions involving long-term inflammation and fatigue, including ME/CFS. The researchers found that most published studies focused on a treatment approach called the Shoemaker Protocol, which was reported to work better than other treatments tested. However, this review only examined existing published articles rather than conducting new research, so the strength of the evidence depends heavily on the quality of those original studies.
This review addresses the overlap and distinction between ME/CFS and CIRS diagnoses, which often creates confusion in clinical practice and delays appropriate treatment. Understanding available evidence for treatments may help patients and clinicians make informed decisions, particularly given that ME/CFS remains poorly understood with no established standard treatment. The findings suggest a specific protocol may warrant further investigation in properly controlled trials.
This review does not prove the Shoemaker Protocol is definitively effective, as it only synthesizes existing published literature without conducting new clinical trials or rigorous comparative studies. The review cannot establish whether CIRS and ME/CFS are distinct conditions or represent different manifestations of the same underlying illness. Publication bias may have inflated apparent efficacy of reported treatments, as negative studies are less likely to be published.
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
Dooley, Ming, Vukelic, April, & Jim, Lysander (2024). Chronic inflammatory response syndrome: a review of the evidence of clinical efficacy of treatment.. Annals of medicine and surgery (2012). https://doi.org/10.1097/MS9.0000000000002718
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-dooley-2024-chronic-inflammatory,
author = {Dooley, Ming and Vukelic, April and Jim, Lysander},
title = {Chronic inflammatory response syndrome: a review of the evidence of clinical efficacy of treatment.},
journal = {Annals of medicine and surgery (2012)},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.1097/MS9.0000000000002718},
note = {PubMed: 39649915},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/dooley-2024-chronic-inflammatory},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/dooley-2024-chronic-inflammatory
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