Paralikar, Vasudeo, Agashe, Mohan, Oke, Meera et al. · Journal of the Indian Medical Association · 2007
This study looked at how common significant fatigue and weakness are in hospital outpatient clinics in Pune, India. Researchers surveyed nearly 1,900 patients across four different specialty clinics and found that about 5% experienced clinically significant fatigue or weakness. Women were more likely to have this condition than men, and it was more common in dermatology and traditional medicine clinics than in psychiatry or general medicine clinics.
This study highlights that fatigue disorders are clinically significant in developing countries but remain under-recognized and understudied. For ME/CFS research, it demonstrates important sex differences and healthcare-seeking patterns that may inform how fatigue disorders are identified and managed across different medical specialties globally.
This study does not diagnose ME/CFS specifically or distinguish between different fatigue disorders. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causation or temporal relationships. The screening instrument used was operationally defined for this study and may not fully capture ME/CFS diagnostic criteria, limiting direct comparability to international ME/CFS prevalence estimates.
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
Paralikar, Vasudeo, Agashe, Mohan, Oke, Meera, Dabholkar, Hamid, Abouihia, Abdallah, & Weiss, Mitchell G (2007). Prevalence of clinically significant functional fatigue or weakness in specialty outpatient clinics of Pune, India.. Journal of the Indian Medical Association. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18236904/
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-paralikar-2007-prevalence-clinically,
author = {Paralikar, Vasudeo and Agashe, Mohan and Oke, Meera and Dabholkar, Hamid and Abouihia, Abdallah and Weiss, Mitchell G},
title = {Prevalence of clinically significant functional fatigue or weakness in specialty outpatient clinics of Pune, India.},
journal = {Journal of the Indian Medical Association},
year = {2007},
note = {PubMed: 18236904},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/paralikar-2007-prevalence-clinically},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/paralikar-2007-prevalence-clinically
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