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 →
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
Schutzer, Steven E, Liu, Tao, Tsai, Chia-Feng, Petyuk, Vladislav A, Schepmoes, Athena A, Wang, Yi-Ting, et al. (2023). Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia are indistinguishable by their cerebrospinal fluid proteomes.. Annals of medicine. https://doi.org/10.1080/07853890.2023.2208372
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-schutzer-2023-myalgic-encephalomyelitis,
author = {Schutzer, Steven E and Liu, Tao and Tsai, Chia-Feng and Petyuk, Vladislav A and Schepmoes, Athena A and Wang, Yi-Ting and Weitz, Karl K and Bergquist, Jonas and Smith, Richard D and Natelson, Benjamin H},
title = {Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia are indistinguishable by their cerebrospinal fluid proteomes.},
journal = {Annals of medicine},
year = {2023},
doi = {10.1080/07853890.2023.2208372},
note = {PubMed: 37722890},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/schutzer-2023-myalgic-encephalomyelitis},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/schutzer-2023-myalgic-encephalomyelitis
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