Shimomura, Tokio · Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyu no shinpo · 2022 · DOI
ME/CFS is a debilitating condition characterized primarily by severe fatigue, but doctors currently have no reliable blood tests or biomarkers to definitively diagnose it. This editorial discusses how ME/CFS diagnosis and treatment require specialized medical knowledge, and notes that common treatments like vitamins and herbal medicines have not proven effective. The authors also observed ME/CFS-like symptoms in some COVID-19 patients, which has prompted renewed research into understanding how ME/CFS develops and finding better treatments.
This editorial highlights critical gaps in ME/CFS diagnosis and treatment that directly affect patient care. The connection between post-COVID syndrome and ME/CFS raises important questions about shared mechanisms and may accelerate research efforts to find effective treatments, benefiting both groups of patients.
This is an editorial review rather than original research, so it does not present new experimental data or clinical trial results. The observations about COVID-19 and ME/CFS-like symptoms are noted but not rigorously compared, and the editorial does not establish whether post-COVID syndrome and ME/CFS share identical underlying mechanisms.
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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Primary citation
Shimomura, Tokio (2022). [Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Who Have Already Visited Some Medical Institutions: The Points of Diagnosis and Treatment].. Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyu no shinpo. https://doi.org/10.11477/mf.1416202094
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-shimomura-2022-patients-myalgic,
author = {Shimomura, Tokio},
title = {[Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) Who Have Already Visited Some Medical Institutions: The Points of Diagnosis and Treatment].},
journal = {Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyu no shinpo},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.11477/mf.1416202094},
note = {PubMed: 35589661},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/shimomura-2022-patients-myalgic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/shimomura-2022-patients-myalgic
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