Loades, Maria Elizabeth, Rimes, Katharine A, Ali, Sheila et al. · Clinical child psychology and psychiatry · 2019 · DOI
This study compared depression symptoms in adolescents with ME/CFS to healthy teenagers and teenagers with asthma. Young people with ME/CFS had significantly higher depression scores than both groups. While depression symptoms were linked to some worsening of fatigue over time, they were a stronger predictor of future depression itself, suggesting depression may be a separate concern that needs its own treatment approach.
This study demonstrates that depression in adolescent ME/CFS is both more prevalent than in healthy peers and other chronic illnesses, and appears to persist without treatment. Understanding that depression may require targeted intervention alongside ME/CFS treatment is crucial for comprehensive clinical care and improved outcomes in young patients.
This study does not establish whether depression causes ME/CFS fatigue, results from it, or is an independent co-occurring condition. The correlational design cannot determine causality. Additionally, the naturalistic follow-up without intervention prevents conclusions about what treatments would be most effective for depression 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
Loades, Maria Elizabeth, Rimes, Katharine A, Ali, Sheila, & Chalder, Trudie (2019). Depressive symptoms in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS): Are rates higher than in controls and do depressive symptoms affect outcome?. Clinical child psychology and psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359104519838584
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-loades-2019-depressive-symptoms,
author = {Loades, Maria Elizabeth and Rimes, Katharine A and Ali, Sheila and Chalder, Trudie},
title = {Depressive symptoms in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS): Are rates higher than in controls and do depressive symptoms affect outcome?},
journal = {Clinical child psychology and psychiatry},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1177/1359104519838584},
note = {PubMed: 30945566},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/loades-2019-depressive-symptoms},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/loades-2019-depressive-symptoms
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