Jones, James F, Nisenbaum, Rosane, Reeves, William C · Health and quality of life outcomes · 2003 · DOI
This study looked at what medications and supplements people with ME/CFS use compared to people without the illness. Researchers called people in Wichita, Kansas and identified those with ME/CFS, then invited them to a clinic visit where they reported all their medications and supplements. People with ME/CFS used about twice as many different drugs as healthy people, with pain relievers and vitamins being most common.
This study documents the substantial medication burden carried by ME/CFS patients, illustrating the widespread need for symptom management across multiple body systems. Understanding medication use patterns can inform clinical care, identify potential drug interactions, and highlight the urgent need for evidence-based treatments targeting underlying disease mechanisms rather than just symptom relief.
This study does not establish whether medications are effective, whether CFS causes medication use or vice versa, or why patients use these medications. The cross-sectional design means we cannot determine the temporal relationship between illness onset and medication initiation, nor can we assess medication safety or outcomes in this population.
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
Jones, James F, Nisenbaum, Rosane, & Reeves, William C (2003). Medication use by persons with chronic fatigue syndrome: results of a randomized telephone survey in Wichita, Kansas.. Health and quality of life outcomes. https://doi.org/10.1186/1477-7525-1-74
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-jones-2003-medication-use,
author = {Jones, James F and Nisenbaum, Rosane and Reeves, William C},
title = {Medication use by persons with chronic fatigue syndrome: results of a randomized telephone survey in Wichita, Kansas.},
journal = {Health and quality of life outcomes},
year = {2003},
doi = {10.1186/1477-7525-1-74},
note = {PubMed: 14651754},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/jones-2003-medication-use},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/jones-2003-medication-use
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