Feng, Chuwen, Qu, Yuanyuan, Lu, Jing et al. · Holistic nursing practice · 2025 · DOI
This review examines whether acupuncture—a traditional Chinese medicine practice involving thin needles placed at specific body points—might help people with ME/CFS. The researchers looked at existing studies on acupuncture for fatigue, how well it worked, whether it improved quality of life, and how it compared to standard treatments. They also explored how acupuncture might work in the body to reduce fatigue symptoms.
This systematic review is important because ME/CFS currently lacks highly effective treatments, and patients often seek complementary therapies like acupuncture. By synthesizing existing evidence, this review helps both patients and healthcare providers understand what the current research does and does not support regarding acupuncture's role in managing fatigue and other ME/CFS symptoms.
This review does not establish that acupuncture is definitively effective for ME/CFS, as it depends entirely on the quality of studies it reviewed. It does not determine causation or superiority over other treatments, and any conclusions are limited by potential publication bias, variable study designs, and inconsistent outcome measures across the reviewed research. This review should not be interpreted as proof that acupuncture works better than established medical treatments.
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
Feng, Chuwen, Qu, Yuanyuan, Lu, Jing, Guo, Shuhao, Li, Binbin, Shao, Yuying, et al. (2025). Review of the Research Progress and Future Prospects of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. Holistic nursing practice. https://doi.org/10.1097/HNP.0000000000000727
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-feng-2025-review-research,
author = {Feng, Chuwen and Qu, Yuanyuan and Lu, Jing and Guo, Shuhao and Li, Binbin and Shao, Yuying and Li, Shulin and Yang, Tiansong},
title = {Review of the Research Progress and Future Prospects of Acupuncture in the Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {Holistic nursing practice},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1097/HNP.0000000000000727},
note = {PubMed: 40245265},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/feng-2025-review-research},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/feng-2025-review-research
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