Kodama, M, Kodama, T, Murakami, M · In vivo (Athens, Greece) · 1996
This pilot study tested whether high-dose vitamin C infusions, combined with a hormone called DHEA, could help one male ME/CFS patient who also had pneumonia-like symptoms. The patient received different types of infusions over 10 months, and his pneumonia-related symptoms improved when the new DHEA-enhanced vitamin C treatment was used alongside antibiotics. The researchers measured increased levels of certain hormones in his urine after treatment.
This early exploratory study investigates whether hormonal augmentation of vitamin C therapy might address both immune dysfunction and secondary infections in ME/CFS, a question relevant to understanding potential neuroendocrine contributions to disease. The proposal that endogenous steroid axis enhancement could improve ME/CFS outcomes has theoretical appeal for patients seeking mechanistic understanding of their condition.
This is a single-case report without concurrent controls, blinding, or randomization, so it cannot establish causation or prove that the DHEA-vitamin C combination caused the observed improvements rather than natural disease fluctuation or antibiotic therapy alone. The study does not demonstrate that this treatment is effective for ME/CFS patients more broadly, nor does it rule out placebo effects or spontaneous remission. The inability to detect lymphocyte changes undermines the proposed immune mechanism.
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
Kodama, M, Kodama, T, & Murakami, M (1996). The value of the dehydroepiandrosterone-annexed vitamin C infusion treatment in the clinical control of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). I. A Pilot study of the new vitamin C infusion treatment with a volunteer CFS patient.. In vivo (Athens, Greece). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8986467/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-kodama-1996-value-dehydroepiandrosterone,
author = {Kodama, M and Kodama, T and Murakami, M},
title = {The value of the dehydroepiandrosterone-annexed vitamin C infusion treatment in the clinical control of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). I. A Pilot study of the new vitamin C infusion treatment with a volunteer CFS patient.},
journal = {In vivo (Athens, Greece)},
year = {1996},
note = {PubMed: 8986467},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kodama-1996-value-dehydroepiandrosterone},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kodama-1996-value-dehydroepiandrosterone
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