Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and COVID-19: is there a connection?

Abstract

Objectives

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is a chronic systemic disease that leads to neurological, immunological, autonomic, and energy metabolism dysfunction. COVID-19 has been reported to cause similar symptoms to ME/CFS. The study aims to investigate the prevalence of myalgic encephalomyelitis in patients post-COVID-19 infection by assessing acute and long-term COVID-19 symptoms.

Methods

A cross-sectional questionnaire was developed based on the ME/CFS diagnostic criteria, as specified by the IOM clinical diagnostic criteria, and administered to participants with confirmed COVID-19 who are more than 18 years old and have BMI below 40 Kg/m². Data from 437 participants were completed.

Results

The current study results revealed that 8.1% of the study participants met the ME/CFS diagnostic criteria. Interestingly, 2.8 of the study participants were classified to have COVID-19 related to ME/CFS. While 4.6% of participants were determined to have disease-related fatigue, 0.7% of participants showed ME/CFS that was not related to COVID-19, and 3.7% of participants were considered to have long COVID-19. Almost one-fourth of the study participants had a family history of ME/CFS. The current study demonstrated that the prevalence of ME/CFS is similar to slightly higher than reported in the literature.

Conclusion

The presence of a relationship between ME/CFS and COVID-19 has been supported by the results of our study. Follow-up of COVID-19 patients is strongly recommended to ensure proper management of ME/CFS symptoms.

Keywords:

• ME/CFS
• COVID-19
• risk factors
• symptoms

Transparency

Declaration of funding

This paper was not funded.

Declaration of financial/other relationships

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties. Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Data availability statement

All data will be available upon request from the corresponding author.

Ethics statement

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.