Marshall-Gradisnik, Sonya, Eaton-Fitch, Natalie · Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2022 · DOI
This article examines myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), a serious illness that causes extreme tiredness, pain, and other symptoms that get worse after activity. The researchers note that ME/CFS and Long COVID (a condition affecting some people after COVID-19) share many similar features. Understanding these overlaps may help doctors better recognize and treat both conditions.
Recognizing the overlap between ME/CFS and Long COVID is important because it may accelerate research and treatment development for both patient populations. If these conditions share common biological mechanisms, insights from Long COVID research could inform ME/CFS understanding, and vice versa, potentially leading to better diagnostic tools and therapeutic approaches.
This review does not prove that ME/CFS and Long COVID are identical conditions or that they have identical causes. It does not establish causation or provide new experimental evidence—it synthesizes existing published work. The overlapping presentation does not mean all Long COVID patients develop ME/CFS or that the conditions always require identical treatment.
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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