Yang, Lu, Adams, Jon, Sibbritt, David · Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society · 2017 · DOI
This study surveyed over 17,000 Australian women to find out how many use acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, and what health conditions are associated with using these treatments. The researchers found that women with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), along with other long-term health problems like low iron, arthritis, and endometriosis, were more likely to try acupuncture or Chinese medicine.
This study provides population-level evidence that CFS patients actively use acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, suggesting these are therapies patients consider important for symptom management. For ME/CFS researchers and clinicians, understanding patterns of complementary medicine use among CFS patients is valuable for comprehensive patient care and for identifying patient-prioritized interventions worth investigating further.
This study does not establish whether acupuncture or Chinese medicine are effective treatments for CFS—it only shows that CFS patients use them more frequently than those without CFS. The cross-sectional design means we cannot determine causation or the direction of association; we cannot tell if CFS drove patients to seek these treatments, or if other factors influenced both CFS diagnosis and treatment choice. The study relies on self-reported use without clinical outcome measures.
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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