Babiloni, Alberto Herrero, Brown, Courtney, Ash, Peyton et al. · The Clinical journal of pain · 2026 · DOI
This study looked at 50 young adults who have multiple overlapping pain conditions (including ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and chronic back pain) to understand how much healthcare they use and whether it helps. On average, these patients saw 2-3 doctors currently and had seen 4 different doctors in the past, yet 78% said their conditions stayed the same or got worse. The findings suggest that simply seeing more doctors and taking more medications isn't enough—patients may need better-coordinated, team-based care.
ME/CFS is frequently comorbid with other pain conditions, and many patients experience years of medical visits without improvement. This study validates that experience and highlights the critical gap between high healthcare engagement and poor outcomes, supporting the urgent need for integrated multidisciplinary care models specifically designed for patients with overlapping chronic conditions.
This study does not prove that seeing more doctors causes worse outcomes or that fewer appointments would help—it only shows a lack of correlation. The cross-sectional design cannot determine causality, identify which specific care approaches work best, or explain why integrated care would succeed where fragmented care has not. Selection bias and self-report bias may also affect results.
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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