Jason, L A, Ohanian, D, Brown, A et al. · Insights in biomedicine · 2017 · DOI
This study compared how people with MS, ME, and chronic fatigue syndrome experience their illnesses. Researchers surveyed 120 people with MS and 269 people with ME/CFS about their symptoms using a standardized questionnaire. They found that people with ME/CFS reported more severe symptoms and greater functional limitations than people with MS, suggesting these conditions have different disability profiles.
ME/CFS is frequently misdiagnosed or confused with MS due to overlapping symptoms like fatigue and cognitive difficulties. This study provides empirical evidence distinguishing the symptom and disability patterns between these conditions, potentially improving diagnostic accuracy and helping clinicians better understand ME/CFS severity relative to other chronic neurological illnesses.
This study does not establish the biological mechanisms underlying ME/CFS or why symptoms differ from MS. It cannot prove causation or establish that symptom severity differences are intrinsic to the diseases themselves, as differences could reflect sampling bias, disease stage, treatment effects, or other confounding variables. Self-reported data may not capture objective physiological differences between conditions.
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
Jason, L A, Ohanian, D, Brown, A, Sunnquist, M, McManimen, S, Klebek, L, et al. (2017). Differentiating Multiple Sclerosis from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. Insights in biomedicine. https://doi.org/10.21767/2572-5610.10027
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-jason-2017-differentiating-multiple,
author = {Jason, L A and Ohanian, D and Brown, A and Sunnquist, M and McManimen, S and Klebek, L and Fox, P and Sorenson, M},
title = {Differentiating Multiple Sclerosis from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {Insights in biomedicine},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.21767/2572-5610.10027},
note = {PubMed: 29430570},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/jason-2017-differentiating-multiple},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/jason-2017-differentiating-multiple
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