Petracek, Lindsay S, Broussard, Camille A, Swope, Renee L et al. · Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023 · DOI
A 19-year-old developed severe ME/CFS-like symptoms after COVID-19 infection. Doctors used ME/CFS treatment approaches—including physical therapy, heart rate monitoring, and medications for heart and immune problems—and the patient improved significantly over 2.5 years. This case suggests that treatments developed for ME/CFS may also help some long COVID patients.
This case demonstrates that ME/CFS diagnostic and management frameworks may have clinical utility for long COVID patients with severe fatigue, potentially opening new treatment pathways. It bridges two post-viral conditions and suggests that existing ME/CFS expertise could be applied to address the growing long COVID population.
This single case cannot prove that ME/CFS treatment approaches work for most long COVID patients, as outcomes may be unique to this individual. It does not establish which specific interventions caused improvement, nor does it determine whether findings apply to other age groups, severity levels, or long COVID presentations.
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
Petracek, Lindsay S, Broussard, Camille A, Swope, Renee L, & Rowe, Peter C (2023). A Case Study of Successful Application of the Principles of ME/CFS Care to an Individual with Long COVID.. Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland). https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11060865
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-petracek-2023-case-study,
author = {Petracek, Lindsay S and Broussard, Camille A and Swope, Renee L and Rowe, Peter C},
title = {A Case Study of Successful Application of the Principles of ME/CFS Care to an Individual with Long COVID.},
journal = {Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland)},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.3390/healthcare11060865},
note = {PubMed: 36981522},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/petracek-2023-case-study},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/petracek-2023-case-study
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