Hydrocortisone

Hydrocortisone is the name for the hormone cortisol when supplied as a medication.

Clinical trials in ME/CFS
A 1998 double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial found that low dose hydrocortisone led to significant improvement in subjective scores but concluded that the resulting degree of adrenal suppression precludes its practical use.

In 1999, the Institute of Psychiatry, London, did a randomized crossover trial, in which Simon Wessely was an author, where low dose hydrocortisone treatments given to patients with chronic fatigue syndrome were found to reduce fatigue scores and that 28% of patients in the treatment group had reductions in scores that brought them to or close to normal in the short term.

A 2003 double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in combination with fludrocortisone, a mineralocorticoid, found no difference in self-reported outcomes.