Akarsu, Selim, Tekin, Levent, Ay, Hakan et al. · Undersea & hyperbaric medicine : journal of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society, Inc · 2013
This small study looked at whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy (breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber) could help people with ME/CFS. Sixteen patients received 15 treatment sessions over three weeks, and researchers measured fatigue and quality of life before and after. All three fatigue measures showed improvement after treatment, and the therapy was well tolerated.
ME/CFS currently lacks consensus treatment approaches, making exploratory studies of potential interventions clinically relevant. This study suggests a specific therapeutic modality warrants further investigation, and positive findings—even in small samples—may justify larger, more rigorous trials to determine whether oxygen therapy could benefit some patients.
This study does not establish that hyperbaric oxygen therapy is effective for ME/CFS because it lacks a control group, has a very small sample size (n=16), and relies on patient-reported outcome measures that are susceptible to placebo effects and expectation bias. The absence of a sham-treatment control arm means improvement cannot be definitively attributed to the oxygen therapy itself rather than natural fluctuation, time, or psychological expectation.
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 →
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