Silva-Passadouro, Bárbara, Tamasauskas, Arnas, Khoja, Omar et al. · Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2024 · DOI
This study reviewed research on brain wave patterns in three related conditions: fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, and Long COVID. Researchers found that ME/CFS and fibromyalgia show different patterns of brain activity when measured using EEG, a test that records electrical activity in the brain. The study suggests these conditions may involve different changes in how the brain functions, which could eventually help doctors identify and treat each condition more specifically.
Understanding the brain's electrical activity patterns in ME/CFS could lead to objective diagnostic tools and personalized treatments. This review suggests that ME/CFS has a distinct neurophysiological signature different from similar conditions, supporting the biological basis of the illness and potentially validating patients' experiences of neurological dysfunction.
This review does not establish that EEG changes cause ME/CFS symptoms or definitively prove these biomarkers can be used clinically for diagnosis. The findings show correlation between EEG patterns and disease states, not causation, and the limited Long COVID data means conclusions about that condition remain preliminary. Individual variation within each condition may be substantial, so group-level findings may not apply to all patients.
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
Silva-Passadouro, Bárbara, Tamasauskas, Arnas, Khoja, Omar, Casson, Alexander J, Delis, Ioannis, Brown, Christopher, et al. (2024). A systematic review of quantitative EEG findings in Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long COVID.. Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinph.2024.04.019
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-silva-passadouro-2024-systematic-review,
author = {Silva-Passadouro, Bárbara and Tamasauskas, Arnas and Khoja, Omar and Casson, Alexander J and Delis, Ioannis and Brown, Christopher and Sivan, Manoj},
title = {A systematic review of quantitative EEG findings in Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long COVID.},
journal = {Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.1016/j.clinph.2024.04.019},
note = {PubMed: 38772083},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/silva-passadouro-2024-systematic-review},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-25. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/silva-passadouro-2024-systematic-review
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