Cleare, A J, O'Keane, V, Miell, J P · Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2004 · DOI
This study looked at stress hormone levels in people with ME/CFS, specifically a hormone called DHEA that affects mood, memory, and sleep. Researchers compared 16 ME/CFS patients to 16 healthy controls and tested how their bodies responded to a hormone challenge. They also gave some patients a low-dose steroid medication for a month to see if it helped. The findings suggest that DHEA levels are higher in ME/CFS and may relate to how disabled patients feel, and that low-dose steroid treatment can lower these levels and improve symptoms in some patients.
Understanding hormone abnormalities in ME/CFS is crucial because the condition involves dysregulation of the stress-response system; this study provides evidence that normalizing DHEA levels through low-dose hydrocortisone may reduce fatigue in responsive patients. These findings support further investigation of steroid therapy as a targeted biomarker-informed treatment approach for ME/CFS.
This study does not prove that elevated DHEA *causes* ME/CFS or disability; it only shows a correlation. The small sample size (n=16 per group) limits generalizability, and the lack of a standardized ME/CFS case definition (e.g., no explicit post-exertional malaise criteria) means the patient cohort may not be fully representative of the broader ME/CFS population. The modest sample size also means the trend toward increased DHEA responsiveness after hydrocortisone (P=0.053) did not reach statistical significance in the full group.
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 →
Spotted an error in this entry? Report it →