Rowe, Peter C, Underhill, Rosemary A, Friedman, Kenneth J et al. · Frontiers in pediatrics · 2017 · DOI
This guide helps doctors understand and diagnose ME/CFS in children and teenagers. ME/CFS causes extreme tiredness and makes it hard for young people to do physical or mental activities—with symptoms often getting worse after even small efforts and lasting for days or longer. The guide explains that there is no single test for ME/CFS, so doctors must diagnose it based on symptoms and by ruling out other conditions, and recommends that treatment focus on finding the right balance between rest and activity.
This is one of the first comprehensive clinical primers addressing the diagnostic and management challenges specific to children and adolescents with ME/CFS, a population often overlooked in medical education and research. Early and accurate diagnosis can prevent years of misdiagnosis and unnecessary testing, while evidence-based management guidance helps clinicians prevent symptom exacerbation and improve quality of life in young patients.
This primer does not establish the underlying cause or etiology of ME/CFS, nor does it present new experimental data or clinical trial results. It is a consensus-based guideline rather than a research study with hypothesis testing, so it cannot prove causal relationships between interventions and outcomes, only synthesize existing clinical knowledge and expert experience.
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
Rowe, Peter C, Underhill, Rosemary A, Friedman, Kenneth J, Gurwitt, Alan, Medow, Marvin S, Schwartz, Malcolm S, et al. (2017). Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diagnosis and Management in Young People: A Primer.. Frontiers in pediatrics. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2017.00121
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-rowe-2017-myalgic-encephalomyelitis,
author = {Rowe, Peter C and Underhill, Rosemary A and Friedman, Kenneth J and Gurwitt, Alan and Medow, Marvin S and Schwartz, Malcolm S and Speight, Nigel and Stewart, Julian M and Vallings, Rosamund and Rowe, Katherine S},
title = {Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diagnosis and Management in Young People: A Primer.},
journal = {Frontiers in pediatrics},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.3389/fped.2017.00121},
note = {PubMed: 28674681},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/rowe-2017-myalgic-encephalomyelitis},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/rowe-2017-myalgic-encephalomyelitis
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