Wise, Shelby, Jantke, Rachel, Brown, Abigail et al. · Fatigue : biomedicine, health & behavior · 2015 · DOI
This study looked at 97 ME/CFS patients to compare how well they were functioning based on the treatments they used. Patients were divided into three groups: those using only complementary/alternative medicine (CAM), those using only traditional medicine, and those using both. The study found that patients using CAM alone had better social functioning and fewer psychiatric diagnoses compared to the other groups.
Understanding which treatments ME/CFS patients perceive as helpful and how different treatment approaches relate to functioning is important for patient-centered care. This study contributes to the growing body of evidence that patients use diverse treatment strategies and suggests CAM may warrant further investigation in ME/CFS populations.
This study cannot establish that CAM treatments *cause* better social functioning or fewer psychiatric diagnoses—patients choosing CAM-only may differ in important ways from those choosing other treatments (selection bias). The findings are based entirely on patient self-report, which may not accurately reflect actual treatment use or functional status. The cross-sectional design prevents any conclusions about treatment effectiveness or temporal relationships.
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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