Gordon, Brett, Lubitz, Lionel · Journal of paediatrics and child health · 2009 · DOI
This study looked at 16 teenagers with ME/CFS who participated in a 4-week inpatient program that included carefully supervised exercise training tailored to each person's abilities. Teenagers who completed the program showed improvements in physical fitness (18% longer time before fatigue, 17% better oxygen uptake), strength (70% more push-ups), fatigue severity (13% improvement), and depression symptoms (42% improvement). These improvements helped many teenagers return to school, social activities, and family life.
This study provides outcome data on a structured inpatient rehabilitation approach for adolescents with ME/CFS, a group often underrepresented in research. The documented improvements in physical capacity and mood may inform clinical practice and rehabilitation design for young patients. Understanding what interventions help different ME/CFS populations is crucial for developing evidence-based treatment approaches.
This study does not prove that graded exercise is universally safe or effective for all ME/CFS patients, as it lacks a control group and does not report adverse events or post-exertional malaise. The absence of follow-up data means we cannot determine whether improvements were sustained beyond the inpatient period. Small case series cannot establish causation or generalize findings to broader ME/CFS populations.
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
Gordon, Brett & Lubitz, Lionel (2009). Promising outcomes of an adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome inpatient programme.. Journal of paediatrics and child health. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1440-1754.2009.01493.x
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-gordon-2009-promising-outcomes,
author = {Gordon, Brett and Lubitz, Lionel},
title = {Promising outcomes of an adolescent chronic fatigue syndrome inpatient programme.},
journal = {Journal of paediatrics and child health},
year = {2009},
doi = {10.1111/j.1440-1754.2009.01493.x},
note = {PubMed: 19493121},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gordon-2009-promising-outcomes},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gordon-2009-promising-outcomes
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