Kuratsune, Hirohiko · Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyu no shinpo · 2018 · DOI
This document presents official diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS developed by Japanese health authorities in 2016. These criteria were designed to help doctors in primary care clinics recognize and diagnose ME/CFS more consistently. The document also summarizes current treatment approaches and expected outcomes based on practices at major medical centers in Japan.
Standardized diagnostic criteria are essential for ensuring ME/CFS patients receive timely and consistent diagnosis across different healthcare settings. Official clinical guidelines help reduce diagnostic delays and misclassification, enabling patients to access appropriate management sooner. This Japanese guideline contributes to international harmonization of ME/CFS diagnosis and treatment standards.
This guideline does not establish the biological causes or mechanisms of ME/CFS, nor does it present new treatment efficacy data from clinical trials. It does not prove that any particular treatment is curative or definitively effective—it describes current practices rather than validating their evidence base. The guideline represents consensus and institutional experience rather than rigorous experimental evidence.
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 →
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