The Fukuda criteria are used for identifying cases of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) for research purposes. They are also known as the CDC 1994 criteria as they were developed in conjunction with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1994. Although the CDC has now adopted newer criteria, the Fukuda criteria are […]
Whilst fatigue may be present in other conditions, this does not diminish the debilitating nature of this symptom in ME/CFS. Unfortunately, stigma, dismissive attitudes, and misconceptions around the disease – as acknowledged by the DHSC – mean that the profound impact of symptoms, such as fatigue, is often overlooked. Compounding this is the fact that […]
Sleep is essential for restoring and repairing the whole body, including the brain, and for processing memories. The vast majority of people with ME/CFS report having sleep difficulties, and research suggests that poor sleep quality is often associated with reduced quality of life. As sleep disturbances can exacerbate already challenging symptoms of ME/CFS – such […]
Cognitive dysfunction, often referred to as “brain fog”, is a complex and distressing core symptom of ME/CFS that encompasses issues with mentally processing, verbalising, and remembering information. The experience of cognitive dysfunction cannot be equated to the occasional forgetfulness and lapses in concentration experienced by healthy individuals. Rather, cognitive impairments in ME/CFS can fluctuate between […]
Post-exertional malaise (PEM), the cardinal feature of ME/CFS, is particularly debilitating as it involves the amplification of existing symptoms, alongside the potential appearance of new ones, following minimal exertion. However, the term “exertion” may be misconstrued, by those unfamiliar with ME/CFS, as activities typically considered high intensity by healthy individuals. Consequently, healthy individuals may inappropriately […]
Poor sleep quality in people with ME/CFS has been linked with lower quality of life. Research into the underlying causes of sleep dysfunction in ME/CFS is limited, but suggests: Despite evidence of sleep dysfunction in ME/CFS, research into its underlying causes remains limited. Many studies use the Fukuda criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which do not […]
NB: When considering information concerning groups of people with ME/CFS and those with long COVID, it is important to remember that ME/CFS is a symptom-based clinical diagnosis not a mechanistic one. It is clear there is a high degree of shared pathophysiology between ME/CFS and long COVID, and the two diagnostic labels are not mutually […]
To gain a more detailed understanding of the link between Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) — which causes glandular fever, also known as Infectious Mononucleosis or ‘mono’ — and ME/CFS, Professor Leonard Jason and colleagues have published a study that follows a group of college students — a population in which EBV infection is common — over a 7-year period. The research team concluded that […]
Key points Introduction International Women’s Day (IWD) is both a call to accelerate progress toward gender equality and a moment to highlight discrimination based on sex, and its consequences. In 2025, Professor Chris Ponting, lead of the DecodeME study and an ME Research UK-funded researcher, stated that ME/CFS research has been delayed due to “medical misogyny” — systemic prejudice […]
A paper, published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, has emphasised the challenges relating to heterogeneity (how a disease can differ from person to person, and between subgroups of the population) in ME/CFS research. One way to manage heterogeneity in studies is to consider factors such as age, sex, disease severity, duration of disease, […]
