Haney, Elizabeth, Smith, M E Beth, McDonagh, Marian et al. · Annals of internal medicine · 2015 · DOI
This study reviewed 44 existing research papers to understand how doctors diagnose ME/CFS. Researchers found that doctors currently use nine different sets of diagnostic guidelines, and a new one was recently proposed by the Institute of Medicine. However, none of these methods have been properly tested to reliably identify ME/CFS patients in real-world situations where doctors are uncertain about the diagnosis.
For patients, this review highlights why getting diagnosed with ME/CFS can be confusing—doctors may use different diagnostic criteria. For researchers, it identifies critical gaps in diagnostic validation that impede development of reliable, standardized diagnostic tools and contribute to ongoing diagnostic uncertainty in clinical practice.
This study does not prove which diagnostic criteria is best or identify a gold-standard diagnostic test for ME/CFS. It does not establish causation or mechanisms of disease, and it does not provide evidence about treatment efficacy or prognosis.
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
Haney, Elizabeth, Smith, M E Beth, McDonagh, Marian, Pappas, Miranda, Daeges, Monica, Wasson, Ngoc, et al. (2015). Diagnostic Methods for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Systematic Review for a National Institutes of Health Pathways to Prevention Workshop.. Annals of internal medicine. https://doi.org/10.7326/M15-0443
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-haney-2015-diagnostic-methods,
author = {Haney, Elizabeth and Smith, M E Beth and McDonagh, Marian and Pappas, Miranda and Daeges, Monica and Wasson, Ngoc and Nelson, Heidi D},
title = {Diagnostic Methods for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Systematic Review for a National Institutes of Health Pathways to Prevention Workshop.},
journal = {Annals of internal medicine},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.7326/M15-0443},
note = {PubMed: 26075754},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/haney-2015-diagnostic-methods},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/haney-2015-diagnostic-methods
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