Rowe, Katherine · Adolescent health, medicine and therapeutics · 2023 · DOI
ME/CFS is a serious illness causing extreme tiredness that doesn't improve with rest, along with worsening after activity, brain fog, poor sleep, and sometimes dizziness and pain. This paper reviews what we know about treating ME/CFS in teenagers and young people, finding that currently there are no proven cure treatments, but symptom management and lifestyle adjustments help most. The study emphasizes that staying connected to school and having supportive doctors who listen made the biggest difference in how well young people managed their illness over time.
This paper directly addresses adolescents with ME/CFS, a vulnerable population facing decades of potential illness during critical developmental years. It provides practical, evidence-based guidance that incorporates patient perspectives and emphasizes the importance of holistic management beyond physical symptoms, which can improve clinical care and outcomes.
This review does not establish definitive causes of ME/CFS or prove efficacy of any specific treatment through controlled trials. The patient feedback, while valuable, represents qualitative observations rather than rigorous outcome measures, and recommendations reflect consensus rather than level-1 evidence.
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, Katherine (2023). Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) in Adolescents: Practical Guidance and Management Challenges.. Adolescent health, medicine and therapeutics. https://doi.org/10.2147/AHMT.S317314
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-rowe-2023-chronic-fatigue,
author = {Rowe, Katherine},
title = {Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) in Adolescents: Practical Guidance and Management Challenges.},
journal = {Adolescent health, medicine and therapeutics},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.2147/AHMT.S317314},
note = {PubMed: 36632532},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/rowe-2023-chronic-fatigue},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/rowe-2023-chronic-fatigue
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