Notable studies

This page lists published ME/CFS studies that are notable, for particularly interesting findings, for controversial findings, or for their quality or their size.

Epidemiological

 * 2015, Institute of Medicine report (Ellen Wright Clayton (Chair), Margarita Alegría, Lucinda Bateman, Lily Chu, Charles S. Cleeland, Ronald Davis, Betty Diamond, Theodore Ganiats, Betsy Keller, Nancy Klimas, A. Martin Lerner, Cynthia Mulrow, Benjamin Natelson, Peter Rowe, Michael Shelanski)
 * 2015, Pathways to prevention report (Green CR, Cowan P, Elk R, O'Neil KM, Rasmussen AL)
 * 2014, Two age peaks in the incidence of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: a population-based registry study from Norway 2008–2012 (Bakken IJ, Tveito K, Gunnes N, Ghaderi S, Stoltenberg C, Trogstad L, Håberg SE, Magnus P)
 * 2013, The prevalence of chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis: a meta-analysis (Samantha Johnston, Ekua Weba Brenu, Donald Staines, Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik)
 * 2011, Prevalence of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) in three regions of England: a repeated cross-sectional study in primary care (Luis Nacul, Eliana Lacerda, Derek Pheby, Peter Campion, Mariam Molokhia, Shagufta Fayyaz, Jose CDC Leite, Fiona Poland, Amanda Howe, Maria L Drachler)
 * 2007, The burden of disease and injury in Australia 2003 (Stephen Begg, Theo Vos, Barker B, Stevenson C, Stanley L, Lopez A)
 * 2006, Prolonged Illness after infectious mononucleosis is associated with altered immunity but not with increased viral load (Cameron, B., Bharadwaj, M., Burrows, J., Fazou, C., Wakefield, D., Hickie, I., Ffrench, R., Khanna, R. and A. Lloyd) See also Model of Post Infective Fatigue Forming: the Dubbo Studies.
 * 2006, Preliminary evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction associated with post-infective fatigue after acute infection with Epstein Barr virus (Vernon, S., Whistler, T., Cameron, B., Hickie, I., Reeves, W. and A. Lloyd) See also Model of Post Infective Fatigue Forming: the Dubbo Studies.
 * 2006, Post-infective and chronic fatigue syndromes precipitated by viral and non-viral pathogens: prospective cohort study (I Hickie, T Davenport, D Wakefield, Vollmer-Conna U, Cameron B, Vernon SD, Reeves WC, Lloyd A)
 * 2005, A systematic review describing the prognosis of chronic fatigue syndrome (Ruth Cairns, Matthew Hotopf)
 * 1996, Health status in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and in general population and disease comparison groups (Anthony Komaroff, Fagioli LR, Doolittle TH, Gandek B, Gleit MA, Guerriero RT, Kornish RJ 2nd, Ware NC, Ware JE Jr, Bates DW)

Immunological

 * 2015, Reductions in circulating levels of IL-16, IL-7 and VEGF-A in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (Landi A, Broadhurst D, Suzanne Vernon, Tyrrell DL, Houghton M)
 * 2015, Distinct plasma immune signatures in ME/CFS are present early in the course of illness (Mady Hornig, Jose Montoya, Nancy Klimas, Levine S, Felsenstein D, Lucinda Bateman, Daniel Peterson, Gottschalk CG, Schultz AF, Che X, Eddy ML, Anthony Komaroff, Ian Lipkin)
 * 2014, Deficient EBV-specific B-and T-cell response in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (Madlen Loebel, Kristin Strohschein, Carolin Giannini, Uwe Koelsch, Sandra Bauer, Cornelia Doebis, Sybill Thomas, Nadine Unterwalder, Volker von Baehr, Petra Reinke, Michael Knops, Leif G. Hanitsch, Christian Meisel, Hans-Dieter Volk, Carmen Scheibenbogen)
 * 2012, Longitudinal investigation of natural killer cells and cytokines in chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (Ekua W Brenu, Mieke L van Driel, Donald Staines, Kevin J Ashton, Sharni L Hardcastle, James Keane, Lotti Tajouri, Daniel Peterson, Sandra B Ramos, Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik)
 * 2011, Benefit from B-lymphocyte depletion using the anti-CD20 antibody rituximab in chronic fatigue syndrome. A double-blind and placebo-controlled study (Øystein Fluge, Ove Bruland, Kristin Risa, Anette Storstein, Einar K. Kristoffersen, Dipak Sapkota, Halvor Næss, Olav Dahl, Harald Nyland, Olav Mella)
 * 2010, Biomarkers in chronic fatigue syndrome: evaluation of natural killer cell function and dipeptidyl peptidase IV/CD26 (Fletcher MA, Zeng XR, Maher K)
 * 2008, Neuroendocrine and immune network remodeling in chronic fatigue syndrome: an exploratory analysis (Fuite J, Susan Vernon, Gordon Broderick)
 * 2008, Cytokine Polymorphisms Have a Synergistic Effect on Severity of the Acute Sickness Response to Infection (Vollmer‐Conna U, Piraino B, Cameron B)
 * 2007, Postinfective fatigue syndrome is not associated with altered cytokine production (Vollmer-Conna U, Cameron B, Pavlovic D)
 * 2006, A first study of cytokine genomic polymorphisms in CFS: positive association of TNF‐857 and IFNgamma 874 rare alleles (Carlo‐Stella N, Badulli C, De S)
 * 2005, Association of chronic fatigue syndrome with human leucocyte antigen class II alleles (Smith J, Fritz EL, Jonathan Kerr)

Metabolic

 * 2014, Inability of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome patients to reproduce VO2peak indicates functional impairment (Betsy Keller, John Pryor, Ludovic Giloteaux)
 * 2012, "Differences in metabolite-detecting, adrenergic, and immune gene expression after moderate exercise in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, patients with multiple sclerosis, and healthy controls", AT White, Alan Light, RW Hughen, TA Vanhaitsma, Kathleen Light.
 * 2009, "Moderate exercise increases expression for sensory, adrenergic, and immune genes in chronic fatigue syndrome patients but not in normal subjects", Alan Light, AT White, RW Hughen, Kathleen Light.

Neurological

 * 2015, Right arcuate fasciculus abnormality in chronic fatigue syndrome (Michael Zeineh, Kang J, Atlas SW, Raman MM, Reiss AL, Norris JL, Valencia I, Jose Montoya)
 * 2007, Symptoms of autonomic dysfunction in chronic fatigue syndrome (Julia Newton, O Okonkwo, K Sutcliffe, Seth A, Shin J, Jones DE)

Treatment

 * 2015, Antibodies to β adrenergic and muscarinic cholinergic receptors in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Øystein Fluge, Olav Mella, Loebel M, Grabowski P, Heidecke H, Bauer S, Hanitsch LG, Wittke K, Meisel C, Reinke P, Volk HD, Carmen Scheibenbogen)
 * 2015, B-Lymphocyte Depletion in Myalgic Encephalopathy/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. An Open-Label Phase II Study with Rituximab Maintenance Treatment (Øystein Fluge, Olav Mella, Risa K, Lunde S, Alme K, Rekeland IG, Sapkota D, Kristoffersen EK, Sørland K, Bruland O, Dahl O)
 * 2013, Altered functional B cell subset populations in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome compared to healthy controls (Amolak Bansal, AS Bradley, B Ford)
 * 2013, "Fibromyalgia Symptoms Are Reduced by Low-Dose Naltrexone: A Pilot Study"
 * 2011, Benefit from B-lymphocyte depletion using the anti-CD20 antibody rituximab in chronic fatigue syndrome. A double-blind and placebo-controlled study (Øystein Fluge, Olav Mella, Bruland O, Risa K, Storstein A, Kristoffersen EK, Sapkota D, Næss H, Dahl O, Nyland H)
 * 2010, "Low-dose naltrexone for the treatment of fibromyalgia: findings of a small, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced, crossover trial assessing daily pain levels"
 * 2009, Clinical impact of B-cell depletion with the anti-CD20 antibody rituximab in chronic fatigue syndrome: a preliminary case series (Øystein Fluge, Olav Mella)

Psychological

 * 2011, The PACE trial (Peter White, KA Goldsmith, AL Johnson, L Potts, R Walwyn, JC DeCesare, HL Baber, M Burgess, LV Clark, DL Cox, Jessica Bavinton, BJ Angus, Gabrielle Murphy, M Murphy, H O'Dowd, D Wilks, P McCrone, Trudie Chalder, Michael Sharpe)
 * 2005, "The Placebo Response in the Treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis", Hyong Jin Cho, Matthew Hotopf, Simon Wessely, Psychosomatic Medicine, 67:301-313; found that the placebo response was actually lower in CFS patients