Himmel, P B, Seligman, T M · Journal of clinical rheumatology : practical reports on rheumatic & musculoskeletal diseases · 1999 · DOI
This study tested whether giving DHEA (a hormone supplement) could help ME/CFS patients who had low DHEA levels. Researchers found that 23 women taking DHEA for 6 months experienced improvements in pain, fatigue, anxiety, memory, and thinking. However, this was a small, uncontrolled study, so larger, more rigorous trials are needed to confirm these results.
This study provides preliminary evidence that HPA axis dysfunction in ME/CFS may involve DHEA deficiency and that hormone supplementation could be beneficial—a hypothesis worth investigating further. If replicated in controlled trials, DHEA supplementation could offer a new treatment option for a subset of ME/CFS patients with documented low hormone levels.
This pilot study cannot establish causation or prove DHEA is effective for ME/CFS, as it lacked a placebo control group and blinding. Improvements could be due to placebo effect, regression to the mean, or other unmeasured factors. The results apply only to women ages 35–55 with low baseline DHEA and cannot be generalized to all ME/CFS patients or other demographics.
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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