American health blogger Cort Johnson looks at which ME/CFS treatment studies have been published since the start of 2013.

He highlights that there has been a lack of drug studies and that most of the these studies were small.

Extracts:

“With only one type of non-behavioral treatment, acupuncture, being assessed in more than one study, few of these treatment options have a chance of going mainstream. (CBT/GET studies showed up in 38 citations). The countries that dominated the behavioral studies (n=36) – the UK and the Netherlands  – showed a distinct preference for the types of studies they wish to fund; they produced only three non-behavioral studies.”

“The implications of two governments [UK & Dutch] focusing substantial funding on one treatment type is clear: a dramatic restriction of the possible treatment options recommended for doctors and ultimately for most patients. Few of the treatments ME/CFS experts use showed up in this survey and few of which are available to patients seeing non-experts.

When a slim portion of the possible treatment options for a disease gets outsized attention three things happen: that treatment gets an undue focus in the media, doctors and patients treatment options are limited, and patients miss possibilities for treatment.”

One [factor] is the unwillingness of federal funders such as the NIH to fund research that will reveal viable treatment targets for drug manufacturers. This poor research funding has left ME/CFS a biological mystery. This has opened the door, as has happened so many times to so many diseases over time, to a behavioral interpretation of it.

The willingness of federal funders in the UK and Europe to pump large amounts of money into the behavioral treatment trials has effectively exploited that opening. A significant portion of the medical profession either accepts a behavioral interpretation of ME/CFS or has little or no knowledge of other possible treatments.

Treatment Survey

Behavioral = 53 citations

• CBT alone or CBT/GET -38 citations
• Graduated exercise therapy – 6
• Pacing — 3
• Yoga — 2
• Others –  8 • Multidisciplinary Study • Relaxation Therapy • Stress Management • Meditation – symptom management • Self-management • Guided Self Instruction • Symptom control • Emotional involvement significant others

Non-Behavioral = 25 citations

Drugs:

• Rituximab (29 people) –  Norway
• Cytokine blocker (50 people) – Netherlands
• Clonidine (176) – Norway
• IVIG (1) – Italy
• Ondansetron (5)- Netherlands
• Valganciclovir (30) – US
• lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (26) – US

Supplements and Diet:

• GcMAF – Japan – case studies – 3 people
• B-12/Folic Acid – Sweden
• Diet – Review article – US
• COQ10 – Spain
• Herbal China  review – China
• Vit D – UK
• Herb – Italy – II – french oak wood extract
• CoQ10 – Spain
• Traditional Chinese Medicine – Review – China
• Multivitamin – Serbia
• Acetaminophen – Belgium

Other and Alternative Health:

• Acupuncture –  S Korea, China, S Korea
• Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy – Turkey
• Mercury removal – 1 person case study – Korea
• Other
  Multidisciplinary Treatments – Italy

Countries of Origin:

US – 4 Italy – 3 Korea – 3 China – 3 Norway — 3 Netherlands – 2 Spain – 2 Belgium – 1 Turkey – 1 Serbia – 1 Sweden – 1 UK- 1

Read more: The Chokehold Behavioral Treatments Have on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome,  by Cort Johnson, Nov 11, 2015