Pochakom, Angela, MacNevin, Gillian, Madden, Robyn F et al. · Frontiers in medicine · 2025 · DOI
This study surveyed 135 women with ME/CFS in North America to understand what medications they use and how these relate to their symptoms and daily functioning. Most participants were taking an average of 3 medications for ME/CFS-related symptoms, with pain medications being the most common, followed by psychiatric and immune-related medications. Interestingly, the study found a U-shaped pattern: both people using very few medications and those using many medications reported lower physical functioning, while moderate medication use was associated with better functioning.
This study provides the first systematic characterization of real-world medication use patterns in ME/CFS patients, offering validation that patients are managing multiple complex symptoms through diverse pharmacological approaches. Understanding these patterns helps clinicians recognize common treatment strategies and may inform more evidence-based, individualized therapeutic protocols rather than the current trial-and-error approach that many patients endure.
This study does not establish which medications are most effective or safe for ME/CFS, as it only documents what patients are taking, not treatment outcomes. The U-shaped relationship between medication use and functioning is correlational—it cannot prove that using fewer or more medications causes worse functioning; patients with more severe disease may use more medications or have lower functioning independent of medication effects. The findings apply only to North American women and may not generalize to men or other populations.
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
Pochakom, Angela, MacNevin, Gillian, Madden, Robyn F, Moss, Amy C, Martin, Julia M, Lalonde-Bester, Sophie, et al. (2025). Medication use and symptomology in North American women with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.. Frontiers in medicine. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2025.1543158
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-pochakom-2025-medication-use,
author = {Pochakom, Angela and MacNevin, Gillian and Madden, Robyn F and Moss, Amy C and Martin, Julia M and Lalonde-Bester, Sophie and Parnell, Jill A and Stein, Eleanor and Shearer, Jane},
title = {Medication use and symptomology in North American women with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Frontiers in medicine},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.3389/fmed.2025.1543158},
note = {PubMed: 40547918},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/pochakom-2025-medication-use},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/pochakom-2025-medication-use
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