Henderson, Theodore A · Advances in mind-body medicine · 2014
This study looked at 15 young people who were referred for treatment-resistant depression but were found to have ME/CFS instead. When treated with an antiviral medication called valacyclovir, 93% of them improved significantly, with fatigue scores dropping substantially. The study suggests that some cases of depression in teenagers may actually be undiagnosed ME/CFS caused by chronic viral infections.
This study addresses the critical problem of ME/CFS being misdiagnosed as depression in young people, which can lead to inappropriate treatment. It provides preliminary evidence that antiviral therapy may benefit adolescents with ME/CFS and suggests a possible viral mechanism (HHV-6) that could guide future research into disease etiology and treatment.
This retrospective case series without a control group cannot establish that valacyclovir causes improvement—patients may have improved naturally or due to placebo effect. The study does not prove that all treatment-resistant depression is actually ME/CFS, nor does it definitively establish HHV-6 reactivation as the cause of CFS. The small sample size and lack of randomization severely limit generalizability.
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
Henderson, Theodore A (2014). Valacyclovir treatment of chronic fatigue in adolescents.. Advances in mind-body medicine. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24445302/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-henderson-2014-valacyclovir-treatment,
author = {Henderson, Theodore A},
title = {Valacyclovir treatment of chronic fatigue in adolescents.},
journal = {Advances in mind-body medicine},
year = {2014},
note = {PubMed: 24445302},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/henderson-2014-valacyclovir-treatment},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/henderson-2014-valacyclovir-treatment
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.