Young, Joel L, Powell, Richard N, Powell, Anna et al. · Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2025 · DOI
Researchers tested whether a medication called solriamfetol could help reduce fatigue in people with ME/CFS. In this 8-week study, some patients received the medication (starting at 75mg and potentially increasing to 150mg) while others received a placebo. By week 8, patients taking solriamfetol reported significantly less severe fatigue compared to those on placebo, and they also showed improvements in thinking and memory abilities. The medication was generally well tolerated, though some people experienced sleep problems and headaches.
This is the first controlled trial demonstrating that solriamfetol may effectively reduce fatigue severity in ME/CFS patients, addressing a condition with no FDA-approved treatments. The findings are significant because they suggest a dual norepinephrine-dopamine mechanism may help address both fatigue and cognitive symptoms—two core debilitating features of ME/CFS. This study opens a potential new therapeutic avenue and provides evidence for larger-scale clinical trials.
This small 8-week study does not establish long-term safety or efficacy beyond 8 weeks, nor does it prove solriamfetol is effective for all ME/CFS patients or at all disease severity levels. The study cannot determine whether improvements result from direct disease modification or symptom management alone. Generalizability is limited by the small sample size and specific patient population enrolled; results may not apply to all ME/CFS presentations.
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
Young, Joel L, Powell, Richard N, Powell, Anna, Welling, Lisa L M, Granata, Lauren, & Saal, Jaime (2025). Solriamfetol improves daily fatigue symptoms in adults with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome after 8 weeks of treatment.. Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England). https://doi.org/10.1177/02698811251368371
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-young-2025-solriamfetol-improves,
author = {Young, Joel L and Powell, Richard N and Powell, Anna and Welling, Lisa L M and Granata, Lauren and Saal, Jaime},
title = {Solriamfetol improves daily fatigue symptoms in adults with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome after 8 weeks of treatment.},
journal = {Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1177/02698811251368371},
note = {PubMed: 40958377},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/young-2025-solriamfetol-improves},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/young-2025-solriamfetol-improves
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