Evidence browser

Infection and vaccination in chronic fatigue syndrome: myth or reality?

Appel, Shmuel, Chapman, Joab, Shoenfeld, Yehuda·Autoimmunity·2007

This review examines whether vaccinations might trigger ME/CFS, since infections can sometimes lead to the condition. The authors found some case reports of ME/CFS occurring after vaccination, but most studies did not find a reliable connection. A Canadian health organization concluded there is no strong evidence linking vaccinations to ME/CFS, though researchers agree more studies are needed.

E3 PreliminaryBehavioralPEM not requiredCase-Control

Fibromylagia, chronic fatigue, and adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in the adult: a case study.

Young, Joel L, Redmond, Judith C·Psychopharmacology bulletin·2007

This study looked at patients who came to a psychiatry clinic with ADHD symptoms and also had unexplained tiredness and widespread pain—conditions similar to ME/CFS or fibromyalgia. When doctors treated the ADHD with medication, some patients noticed their fatigue and pain improved along with their attention problems. The researchers suggest this might mean these conditions involve how the brain processes information rather than problems in muscles and joints.

E3 PreliminaryReviewPEM not requiredReview-Narrative

Vitamin d and rehabilitation: improving functional outcomes.

Shinchuk, Leonid M, Holick, Michael F·Nutrition in clinical practice : official publication of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition·2007

Vitamin D deficiency is very common in people undergoing rehabilitation and can cause bone pain, muscle weakness, and poor balance. This review explains that maintaining healthy vitamin D levels (measured as 30–60 ng/mL in the blood) through sunlight exposure, diet, or supplements can help prevent fractures and improve muscle function. Because vitamin D deficiency can mimic or worsen symptoms of ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and other conditions, doctors should check vitamin D levels in patients with these problems.

E3 PreliminaryMechanismPEM not requiredCross-Sectional

Functional neuroimaging correlates of mental fatigue induced by cognition among chronic fatigue syndrome patients and controls.

Cook, Dane B, O'Connor, Patrick J, Lange, Gudrun et al.·NeuroImage·2007

This study used brain imaging to see how the brains of ME/CFS patients and healthy people respond during mentally tiring tasks. Researchers found that feelings of mental fatigue were linked to activity in specific brain regions during a difficult memory task, and that ME/CFS patients showed greater brain activity in these areas compared to healthy controls, even though they were doing the same task.

Pain and SensitizationSleep

Cranial electrotherapy stimulation and fibromyalgia.

Gilula, Marshall F·Expert review of medical devices·2007

This review examines cranial electrotherapy stimulation (CES), a treatment that uses mild electrical stimulation applied to the head to help manage fibromyalgia pain and related symptoms. While CES is not a cure-all, research suggests it may help some fibromyalgia patients feel better. The review also discusses how fibromyalgia often occurs alongside other conditions like anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and fatigue—symptoms that overlap with ME/CFS.

E3 PreliminaryReviewPEM not requiredReview-Narrative

[Antinuclear antibodies in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome].

Nishikai, Masahiko·Nihon rinsho. Japanese journal of clinical medicine·2007

This review examined whether people with ME/CFS have specific antibodies (immune proteins) that attack their own body cells. Researchers found that 15-25% of ME/CFS patients had these antibodies, but the patterns varied widely and were generally weak. A few new antibodies specific to ME/CFS were identified, with one type appearing in 13% of patients studied and linked to severe fatigue and concentration problems.

E3 PreliminaryMechanismPEM not requiredCross-Sectional

Enhanced feedback sensitivity to prednisolone in chronic fatigue syndrome.

Jerjes, Walid K, Taylor, Norman F, Wood, Peter J et al.·Psychoneuroendocrinology·2007

This study tested how the bodies of ME/CFS patients respond to a small dose of a steroid medication called prednisolone. Researchers found that people with ME/CFS showed a stronger suppression of cortisol (a stress hormone) after taking the medication compared to healthy controls, suggesting their bodies may be overly sensitive to this type of feedback signal from the steroid.

Endocrine Disruption

E3 PreliminaryTrialPEM not requiredRCT

Effects of elevated plasma tryptophan on brain activation associated with the Stroop task.

Morgan, Rhian M, Parry, Allyson M M, Arida, Ricardo M et al.·Psychopharmacology·2007

This study looked at how a dietary supplement called tryptophan affects the brain's activity during mental tasks in people experiencing central fatigue (like in ME/CFS). Researchers used brain imaging to watch what happens when people take tryptophan versus a placebo while doing a challenging attention test. They found that tryptophan slowed down responses and changed brain activity patterns in several regions, particularly in areas related to awareness and processing information.

E3 PreliminaryBehavioralPEM not requiredCase-Control

Can homeopathy learn something from psychoanalysis?

Van Hootegem, H·Homeopathy : the journal of the Faculty of Homeopathy·2007

This study describes a single case of a 23-year-old woman with chronic fatigue syndrome treated with homeopathy combined with psychoanalytic principles. The author explores whether ideas from psychoanalysis—such as the importance of the therapeutic relationship, the role of dreams, and inherited family trauma—might help explain how homeopathic treatment works. The paper is theoretical rather than providing strong medical evidence.

E3 PreliminaryCohortPEM not requiredCase-Control

Normalization of the increased translocation of endotoxin from gram negative enterobacteria (leaky gut) is accompanied by a remission of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Maes, Michael, Coucke, Francis, Leunis, Jean-Claude·Neuro endocrinology letters·2007

This study describes a teenage girl with ME/CFS who had damage to her gut lining, allowing bacterial toxins to leak into her bloodstream. When she was treated with antioxidants, dietary changes to repair her gut, and immune support therapy, the leaky gut improved and her ME/CFS symptoms disappeared. The findings suggest that gut damage may play a role in some ME/CFS cases.

E3 PreliminaryDiagnosticPEM not requiredMethods-Paper

Odds ratio based multifactor-dimensionality reduction method for detecting gene-gene interactions.

Chung, Yujin, Lee, Seung Yeoun, Elston, Robert C et al.·Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)·2007

This study presents a new computational tool called OR MDR that helps scientists find combinations of genes that might increase the risk of developing diseases like ME/CFS. Unlike older methods that simply sort gene combinations into two groups (high-risk or low-risk), this new tool provides more detailed information about exactly how much each gene combination increases disease risk, including ranges of uncertainty around those estimates.

E3 PreliminaryCohortPEM unclearCross-Sectional

'What is it like to have ME?': the discursive construction of ME in computer-mediated communication and face-to-face interaction.

Guise, Jennifer, Widdicombe, Sue, McKinlay, Andy·Health (London, England : 1997)·2007

This study examined how people with ME/CFS describe their illness when talking online and face-to-face. Researchers analyzed conversations from 49 internet users and 7 people in support groups to understand how patients talk about their condition. They found that people consistently describe ME/CFS as serious, mysterious, and not caused by psychological factors—ways of talking that help them counter misconceptions and explain why their illness isn't their fault.

E3 PreliminaryCohortPEM not requiredCross-Sectional

[History of chronic fatigue syndrome].

Hashimoto, Nobuya·Nihon rinsho. Japanese journal of clinical medicine·2007

This article reviews the history of ME/CFS, showing that conditions with similar symptoms have existed for hundreds of years under different names like neurasthenia and myalgic encephalomyelitis. A major outbreak at Lake Tahoe in the 1980s brought modern attention to the disease, but doctors realized that not all patients with CFS symptoms actually had evidence of EBV infection, suggesting the disease is more complex than a simple viral cause. The authors explain how understanding this history can help develop better diagnostic guidelines for the condition.

Diagnostics

Reduced responsiveness is an essential feature of chronic fatigue syndrome: a fMRI study.

Tanaka, Masaaki, Sadato, Norihiro, Okada, Tomohisa et al.·BMC neurology·2006

Researchers used brain imaging to compare how the brains of ME/CFS patients and healthy people responded to sounds while doing a tiring visual task. They found that healthy people's brains stayed responsive to sounds during the task, but ME/CFS patients' brains showed reduced responses to sounds—and this reduction matched how fatigued the patients felt. This suggests that ME/CFS may involve the brain becoming less able to process information that isn't directly related to the main task at hand.

E3 PreliminaryDiagnosticPEM not requiredMethods-Paper

Exploration of statistical dependence between illness parameters using the entropy correlation coefficient.

Craddock, R Cameron, Taylor, Renee, Broderick, Gordon et al.·Pharmacogenomics·2006

Researchers tested a new statistical method called the entropy correlation coefficient to identify which ME/CFS symptoms and test results are related to each other. They studied 130 women and found that fatigue-related measures were strongly connected to each other, as were general quality-of-life measures and depression scores. Importantly, they discovered some relationships between cognitive test results and ME/CFS that hadn't been found with traditional statistical methods.

E3 PreliminaryCommentaryPEM not requiredEditorial

Challenges for molecular profiling of chronic fatigue syndrome.

Vernon, Suzanne D, Whistler, Toni, Aslakson, Eric et al.·Pharmacogenomics·2006

This paper discusses why it's been difficult for scientists to find reliable blood tests (biomarkers) to diagnose ME/CFS and develop treatments. The authors explain that ME/CFS is complex because it affects many body systems at once, and each researcher may focus on different areas based on their expertise. They suggest that blood tests show promise for understanding ME/CFS and that combining genetic information, protein data, and information about patients' environments and behaviors could help researchers better understand why different patients experience the illness differently.

Diagnostics

E3 PreliminaryDiagnosticPEM unclearMethods-Paper

CFSUM1 and CFSUM2 in urine from patients with chronic fatigue syndrome are methodological artefacts.

Chalmers, Ronald A, Jones, Mark G, Goodwin, C Stewart et al.·Clinica chimica acta; international journal of clinical chemistry·2006

An earlier study claimed to find two special markers in the urine of ME/CFS patients that could help diagnose the condition. This study re-examined those findings and discovered that these supposed markers were actually just artifacts—unintended byproducts created by the way the urine samples were prepared in the lab, not real biological differences between patients and healthy people.

Biomarkers

E3 PreliminaryMechanismPEM not requiredMechanistic

[The chronic fatigue syndrome and its diagnosis in internal medicine].

Barbado Hernández, F J, Gómez Cerezo, J, López Rodríguez, M et al.·Anales de medicina interna (Madrid, Spain : 1984)·2006

This article reviews how chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is diagnosed and understood within internal medicine practice. The authors discuss the clinical features, diagnostic criteria, and challenges that doctors face when identifying ME/CFS in patients. The paper helps physicians recognize and properly diagnose this condition in their everyday practice.

Diagnostics

Identifying illness parameters in fatiguing syndromes using classical projection methods.

Broderick, Gordon, Craddock, R Cameron, Whistler, Toni et al.·Pharmacogenomics·2006

Researchers studied 111 women to find common patterns that distinguish ME/CFS patients from healthy controls by looking at both their symptoms and gene activity in blood cells. They used a statistical method to combine multiple pieces of information—like fatigue scores, quality of life measures, and which genes were active—rather than looking at single factors alone. The analysis identified key differences related to stress in cells, immune problems, and imbalanced minerals, particularly reflected in abnormal heart rate patterns during sleep.