Garapaty, Nikitha, Reyes, Kristina M, Tehrani, Lily et al. · American journal of medicine open · 2025 · DOI
This study compared symptoms in people with ME/CFS, Long COVID, both conditions together, and people without either condition. Researchers found that people who have both ME/CFS and Long COVID experience the worst symptoms—including memory problems, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and difficulty exercising—compared to people with just one condition or neither. The findings suggest these two illnesses may interact in ways that make symptoms more severe when they occur together.
This research is important because it highlights that ME/CFS and Long COVID may not be independent conditions—patients who have both may face compounded symptom burden. Understanding this potential interaction could help clinicians better recognize and treat patients experiencing both illnesses simultaneously, and may guide future research into shared biological mechanisms between these conditions.
This study does not prove that ME/CFS and Long COVID share the same underlying cause, nor does it establish whether one condition increases risk of developing the other. The cross-sectional design captures associations at a single point in time, so it cannot determine causation or the temporal sequence of symptom development. Survey-based diagnoses were not confirmed by clinical evaluation, which may limit diagnostic accuracy.
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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