Moorkens, G, Wynants, H, Abs, R · Growth hormone & IGF research : official journal of the Growth Hormone Research Society and the International IGF Research Society · 1998 · DOI
This study tested whether growth hormone therapy could help people with ME/CFS who had low growth hormone levels during sleep. Twenty patients received either growth hormone or placebo for 12 weeks, then all remaining patients received growth hormone for 9 more months. While the treatment increased growth hormone-related markers in the blood and increased muscle mass, it did not significantly improve quality of life overall, though four patients were able to return to work.
ME/CFS patients experience profound disability and loss of function; identifying effective treatments is critical. This study addresses the hypothesis that GH deficiency contributes to ME/CFS pathology, which could explain some metabolic and physical symptoms and open new therapeutic avenues if validated in larger trials.
This study does not establish that GH deficiency causes ME/CFS, only that some patients have low GH levels. The absence of significant quality-of-life improvements on standardized measures does not definitively rule out GH therapy's benefit, as the study was small and may have lacked statistical power to detect meaningful clinical change. Return-to-work outcomes cannot be attributed solely to GH without longer follow-up and comparison to natural recovery rates.
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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