Maloney, Elizabeth M, Gurbaxani, Brian M, Jones, James F et al. · Pharmacogenomics · 2006 · DOI
This study looked at whether people with ME/CFS have higher "allostatic load"—a measure of how much physical stress the body is under based on things like blood pressure, cortisol levels, and waist-to-hip ratio. Researchers compared 43 ME/CFS patients to 60 healthy people and found that ME/CFS patients were about twice as likely to have high allostatic load. This suggests that ME/CFS may involve ongoing physical stress on the body's systems.
This study provides objective, biomarker-based evidence that ME/CFS involves elevated physiologic strain across multiple body systems—not just fatigue perception. Understanding allostatic load may help explain why ME/CFS patients experience multi-system dysfunction and could guide future therapeutic interventions targeting stress-response dysregulation.
This study does not prove that high allostatic load *causes* ME/CFS or vice versa; it only shows an association. The wide confidence interval (crossing 1.0) means the true effect could be smaller or null, and the modest sample size limits generalizability. The study is cross-sectional and cannot establish temporal relationships or identify which components of allostatic load are primary versus secondary.
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
Maloney, Elizabeth M, Gurbaxani, Brian M, Jones, James F, de Souza Coelho, Lucio, Pennachin, Cassio, & Goertzel, Benjamin N (2006). Chronic fatigue syndrome and high allostatic load.. Pharmacogenomics. https://doi.org/10.2217/14622416.7.3.467
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-maloney-2006-chronic-fatigue,
author = {Maloney, Elizabeth M and Gurbaxani, Brian M and Jones, James F and de Souza Coelho, Lucio and Pennachin, Cassio and Goertzel, Benjamin N},
title = {Chronic fatigue syndrome and high allostatic load.},
journal = {Pharmacogenomics},
year = {2006},
doi = {10.2217/14622416.7.3.467},
note = {PubMed: 16610956},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/maloney-2006-chronic-fatigue},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/maloney-2006-chronic-fatigue
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