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6 reviews

• 6/ 10Borderline

  Cerebral blood flow is reduced in ME/CFS during head-up tilt testing even in the absence of hypotension or tachycardia: A quantitative, controlled study using Doppler echography

  van Campen CLMC, Verheugt FWA, Rowe PC, et al. · Clinical Neurophysiology Practice · 2020

  Brain blood flow fell much more on tilt in patients than in healthy controls, even with normal heart rate and blood pressure, but without inactive or ill controls or a correction for over-breathing, the claims about cause and diagnosis go beyond the data.

  Healthy controls only, fitness not reportedScans recorded by a clinician who knew the groupsMeasures blood volume to the brain, not just speed
• 4.5/ 10Fails

  The DePaul Symptom Questionnaire-2: A Validation Study

  Bedree H, Sunnquist M, Jason LA · Fatigue: Biomedicine, Health & Behavior · 2019

  A sensible revision of a patient questionnaire, honestly described, but with no comparison group, no reference diagnosis and no repeat testing it cannot show the validity and reliability its title and conclusion claim.

  No comparison group or reference diagnosisMore people meeting criteria is built into the designSplitting two-in-one questions shows clear differences
• 5/ 10Borderline

  A prospective observational study of post-COVID-19 chronic fatigue syndrome following the first pandemic wave in Germany and biomarkers associated with symptom severity

  Kedor C, Freitag H, Meyer-Arndt L, et al. · Nature Communications · 2022

  Careful early evidence that some people meet strict ME/CFS criteria after mild COVID-19, but the headline blood-marker links to grip strength appear to pool men and women, and most weaken or vanish in women alone.

  Self-referred patients; cannot show how commonNo healthy or recovered controls measuredStrict criteria, with a real medical work-up
• 4/ 10Fails

  Comparison of adaptive pacing therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, graded exercise therapy, and specialist medical care for chronic fatigue syndrome (PACE): a randomised trial

  White PD, Goldsmith KA, Johnson AL, et al. · The Lancet · 2011

  A large, well-run trial whose gains rest on questionnaires filled in by patients who knew their treatment, while fitness, work and benefits did not improve; it cannot show that talking therapy or graded exercise changed the illness rather than how it was reported.

  Main outcomes self-rated by unblinded patientsFitness, work and benefits did not improveLarge, properly randomised, very few dropouts
• 6.5/ 10Solid

  Initial findings from the DecodeME genome-wide association study of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome

  DecodeME, Boutin T, Bretherick AD, et al. · medRxiv · 2025 Preprint

  A large, careful genetics study with probable real findings; no valid cohort yet exists to replicate them, and the framing outruns that.

  Artefact risk rests on internal checks aloneCases and controls genotyped apart, unequal checksLargest ME/CFS genetics study; 15,579 cases
• 4/ 10Fails

  Development and validation of blood-based diagnostic biomarkers for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) using EpiSwitch® 3-dimensional genomic regulatory immuno-genetic profiling

  Hunter E, Alshaker H, Bundock O, et al. · Journal of Translational Medicine · 2025

  An interesting DNA-folding signal, but cases and most controls came from different sources, so the 96% accuracy may partly reflect sample origin rather than disease.

  Cases and most controls from different sourcesSample counts inconsistent across the paperMarker selection confined to the training set