Lomas-Vega, Rafael, Rodríguez-Almagro, Daniel, Peinado-Rubia, Ana Belén et al. · Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020 · DOI
Researchers created and tested a new 20-question tool to measure balance problems and nerve-muscle coordination in people with fibromyalgia. The tool was tested on 62 fibromyalgia patients, 22 older adults, and 24 healthy people. The results show the tool works well at identifying balance issues in fibromyalgia patients, especially problems related to head movements.
While this study focuses on fibromyalgia rather than ME/CFS, it validates a sensitive tool for detecting balance and neuromotor dysfunction—symptoms many ME/CFS patients also experience. Reliable measurement tools for these symptoms could improve diagnosis and clinical assessment in ME/CFS, where neurological dysfunction and postural problems are increasingly recognized as core features.
This study does not prove that the JAEN tool is valid for ME/CFS patients, as it was developed and tested only in fibromyalgia populations. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causation or whether balance dysfunction is a primary neurological feature or secondary to deconditioning. External validity to other conditions or healthcare settings remains unknown.
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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