Schutzer, Steven E, Liu, Tao, Tsai, Chia-Feng et al. · Annals of medicine · 2023 · DOI
Researchers examined the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord in people with ME/CFS—some of whom also had fibromyalgia and some who did not. Using advanced technology to measure thousands of proteins in this fluid, they found no significant differences between the two groups. This suggests that ME/CFS and fibromyalgia may not be completely separate diseases, but rather may overlap or be related conditions.
Understanding whether ME/CFS and fibromyalgia are distinct diseases or related conditions has important implications for diagnosis, treatment, and research priorities. If they share underlying biological mechanisms, patients and clinicians may benefit from integrated treatment approaches, and researchers can focus resources on common pathways rather than studying them separately.
This study does not prove that ME/CFS and fibromyalgia are the same disease—only that their CSF protein profiles are currently indistinguishable using this method. It does not establish whether other biological differences exist in other body fluids or tissues, nor does it clarify whether shared protein patterns mean shared causes or separate diseases with overlapping symptoms.
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 →
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