Landis, J Richard, Williams, David A, Lucia, M Scott et al. · BMC urology · 2014 · DOI
The MAPP Research Network is a large study designed to understand chronic pelvic pain conditions and related illnesses like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and irritable bowel syndrome. Researchers followed over 1,000 patients at six sites across the United States, collecting detailed information about their symptoms, blood samples, and brain imaging to identify what causes these conditions and how they connect to each other.
This study is important for ME/CFS patients because it specifically includes Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as a 'positive control' condition, allowing researchers to systematically compare CFS patients with those having other chronic pain conditions. The research reveals how CFS co-occurs with other illnesses and uses advanced phenotyping methods that can help identify shared biological mechanisms across overlapping syndromes, potentially improving diagnosis and treatment strategies.
This observational study does not prove causation—it documents associations between UCPPS, CFS, fibromyalgia, and IBS but does not establish that one condition causes another. The study's cross-sectional baseline design cannot definitively determine whether symptom clusters reflect shared underlying biology or separate conditions that coincidentally occur together. Results are specific to the enrolled US population and may not generalize to all patients with these 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
Landis, J Richard, Williams, David A, Lucia, M Scott, Clauw, Daniel J, Naliboff, Bruce D, Robinson, Nancy A, et al. (2014). The MAPP research network: design, patient characterization and operations.. BMC urology. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2490-14-58
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-landis-2014-mapp-research,
author = {Landis, J Richard and Williams, David A and Lucia, M Scott and Clauw, Daniel J and Naliboff, Bruce D and Robinson, Nancy A and van Bokhoven, Adrie and Sutcliffe, Siobhan and Schaeffer, Anthony J and Rodriguez, Larissa V and Mayer, Emeran A and Lai, H Henry and Krieger, John N and Kreder, Karl J and Afari, Niloofar and Andriole, Gerald L and Bradley, Catherine S and Griffith, James W and Klumpp, David J and Hong, Barry A and Lutgendorf, Susan K and Buchwald, Dedra and Yang, Claire C and Mackey, Sean and Pontari, Michel A and Hanno, Philip and Kusek, John W and Mullins, Chris and Clemens, J Quentin and MAPP Research Network Study Group},
title = {The MAPP research network: design, patient characterization and operations.},
journal = {BMC urology},
year = {2014},
doi = {10.1186/1471-2490-14-58},
note = {PubMed: 25085119},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/landis-2014-mapp-research},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/landis-2014-mapp-research
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