Nilsson, Marie Karin Lena, Zachrisson, Olof, Gottfries, Carl-Gerhard et al. · Acta neuropsychiatrica · 2018 · DOI
Researchers tested a drug called (-)-OSU6162 to see if it could help people with ME/CFS feel less mentally tired. Sixty-two patients received either the drug or a placebo (dummy pill) for 2 weeks. While both groups felt somewhat better during treatment, the drug did not work significantly better than placebo overall. Interestingly, the drug appeared to help more in patients who were also taking antidepressants.
This study contributes to understanding potential pharmacological interventions for mental fatigue in ME/CFS, a core debilitating symptom. The finding that the drug may be more effective in a depression-treated subgroup suggests that neurobiological heterogeneity in ME/CFS may require personalized treatment approaches. The work also validates (-)-OSU6162's safety profile in ME/CFS populations.
This study does not prove that (-)-OSU6162 is an effective ME/CFS treatment, as it failed to show superiority over placebo in the overall population. The correlation between drug concentration and symptom improvement does not establish causation. The exploratory subgroup findings (antidepressant co-treatment) are hypothesis-generating only and require prospective confirmation in a larger, pre-specified analysis.
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
Nilsson, Marie Karin Lena, Zachrisson, Olof, Gottfries, Carl-Gerhard, Matousek, Michael, Peilot, Birgitta, Forsmark, Sara, et al. (2018). A randomised controlled trial of the monoaminergic stabiliser (-)-OSU6162 in treatment of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.. Acta neuropsychiatrica. https://doi.org/10.1017/neu.2017.35
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-nilsson-2018-randomised-controlled,
author = {Nilsson, Marie Karin Lena and Zachrisson, Olof and Gottfries, Carl-Gerhard and Matousek, Michael and Peilot, Birgitta and Forsmark, Sara and Schuit, Robert Christiaan and Carlsson, Maria Lizzie and Kloberg, Angelica and Carlsson, Arvid},
title = {A randomised controlled trial of the monoaminergic stabiliser (-)-OSU6162 in treatment of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Acta neuropsychiatrica},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1017/neu.2017.35},
note = {PubMed: 29212562},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/nilsson-2018-randomised-controlled},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/nilsson-2018-randomised-controlled
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