On this page you will find ongoing ME/CFS clinical trials looking for participants. For more ongoing clinical trials as well as completed clinical trials go to Clinicaltrials.gov
You can read about the latest resources for investigating the causes and mechanisms of ME/CFS here: New resources for large-scale ME/CFS research
Be sure to check the Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine for their ongoing trials.
See the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt Sinai for their ongoing trials.
Center for Enervating NeuroImmune Disease
Location: Patient interactions will occur at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS, Manhattan, NY)
We are seeking volunteers comprising 40 ME/CFS patients and 20 controls to participate in this NIH funded (U54AI178855) project. The ME/CFS subjects will be identified by expert physician Dr. Susan Levine, M.D. (Manhattan, NY). Only those participants whose onset of ME/CFS was before 2020 will be eligible. Please review our recruitment flyer for more information on how to volunteer as a patient or control in this research study.
Location of Study:
Univ. Mass. Chan Medical School
Department of Medicine
Worcester, MA
Time Commitment: Adult Initial visit 30 min in person, two follow-up visits 30 min each in person; Children initial visit, 1 follow-up visit, optional joining study to follow up to 4 years.
Contact: Dr. Hayla Sluss
Phone: 508-856-3372
Email: Hayla.sluss@umassmed.edu
We are investigating the interplay of cellular landscapes and the role of oxidative stress and how they contribute to the disease in chronic conditions and illness.
We are seeking healthy volunteers or patients that self-report with these diseases:
The LIFT will be conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) of Harvard Medical School, focusing on the effect of Pyridostigmine (Mestinon) and Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN) in subjects aged 18-65 meeting the Canadian consensus criteria (CCC) for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) as well as having specifically Orthostatic Intolerance.
This double-blind, placebo-controlled study will involve 160 participants randomized into one of four possible groups: Pyridostigmine/LDN (40), Pyridostigmine/Placebo (40), LDN/Placebo (40), Placebo/Placebo (40). The dose of Pyridostigmine will be carefully titrated from 30mg to 60mg three times a day, and the dose of LDN will be titrated from 1.5 mg to 4.5 mg once daily.
The trial includes a scale-back plan, allowing participants to reduce their dosage if they experience intolerance symptoms, with adjustments made during weekly visits. This plan provides a personalized approach to medication tolerance, ensuring participant’s safety and comfort throughout the trial.
The time commitment for the participant is approximately three (3) months, and during this time, there will be three (3) in-person visits to BWH and four (4) virtual visits. Study procedures will include two (2) submaximum cardiopulmonary exercise tests, questionnaires (virtually completed), and blood and urine collection. We will be recruiting from the BWH Dyspnea Clinic as well as the Open Medicine Foundation (OMF) StudyME Registry and anticipate the entire trial will take two (2) years to complete.
ME/CFS and post-COVID ME/CFS patients needed for an imaging and blood draw study
We are seeking individuals with ME/CFS and post-COVID ME/CFS to participate in an imaging and blood draw study investigating underlying causes of cognitive control impairment in these populations.
2 visits Estimated Time Commitment
Any Gender, 18-70 years May Be Eligible
Payment up to $225 May Be Offered
Survey, Blood draw, Office visit, MRI scan May Be Required
Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) patients needed for a PET/MRI study
Is the brain’s immune response different in people with and without ME/CFS? To find out, we are looking for individuals diagnosed with ME/CFS between the age of 18-70 to participate in our paid PET/MRI study.
6 hours over 2 visits Estimated Time Commitment
Gender-expansive, Intersex, Nonbinary, Transgender Male, Transgender Female, Female, Male, 18-70 years May Be Eligible
Payment up to $250 May Be Offered
Survey, Personal health tracking, Blood draw, Injection or IV, MRI scan, PET scan May Be Required
Open Medicine Foundation: Study ME
Our goal is to enhance the quality of life for individuals affected by ME/CFS, Long Covid, Fibromyalgia, and other post-infection illnesses by expediting research in these areas and increasing awareness by showing how many people are waiting for a cure. Signing up is easy and takes less than five minutes. All you need to do is provide your contact details and specify your areas of interest. Once you’ve done this, we’ll send you email notifications whenever there are research opportunities that align with your interests to potentially participate in surveys, laboratory studies, or treatment trials.
Pain and Fatigue Study Center at Mt. Sinai is conducting several studies
Patients with ME/CFS and Balance Problems
Many patients with ME/CFS have problems maintaining balance. This new study tests the individual patient for that problem and then applies a treatment — activation of the part that modulates balance via a battery-operated stimulator. The purpose of the study is to determine if this experimental treatment improves balance. If you are interested in participating in this study, please contact us either via email to info@painandfatigue.com or phone at 212-844-6665.
MRI Imaging to Compare Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Occurring With or Without Prior Covid-19 Infection
Many COVID-19 survivors remain ill with symptoms such as fatigue and brain fog. The symptoms are indicative of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). In this project, we will do magnetic resonance imaging of the brain to compare the images between long-COVID-ME/CFS and classic ME/CFS patients, as well as to individuals not affected by ME/CFS. Participants will be asked to undergo eligibility screening, complete a MRI scan, and answer questionnaires. Participants will be paid $100 upon completing the study. Knowledge learned from this study will deepen our understanding of ME/CFS/long-COVID disease mechanisms, aid in ME/CFS diagnosis, inform treatment decisions, and inspire new treatment targets. If you experience long-COVID or ME/CFS, or are a healthy individual, and are interested in participating in this study, please call 212-844-6665 or sign up at https://forms.gle/1uW36fMfjrFuNATX8
To examine why post activity fatigue, also known as post-exertional malaise (PEM) occurs in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome [CFS] and at what level
Current thinking is two cardiac stress tests a day apart can be used to assess the common ME/CFS complaint of post-exertional malaise. Our government medical research agency, the NIH, has provided us funds to examine this link. One reason that exertion may trigger PEM might relate to reductions in blood volume which occur when a person has to rest. We are asking patients with ME/CFS as well as one healthy friend or relative to consider coming to Mount Sinai for testing. After we assure that you are either an ME/CFS patient or a healthy comparison person, we will determine your blood volume and then ask you to do two sequential cardiac stress tests. If your blood volume is reduced, you may get an infusion of saline designed to repair this deficit. Reimbursement for time and travel will be available. If you are interested in possibly participating in this study, please call us at 212-844-6665.
Serimmune Covid-19 Immunity Study
Our goal is to understand differences in personal immune response to infection by the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2. Each individual makes their own unique set of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, and in this study we will investigate how these differences may be important for immunity, the duration of immunity, and for severity of symptoms.
Read Cort Johnson’s informative post about the study HERE.
The Bateman Horne Center is conducting a clinical trial to test oxaloacetate, a nutritional supplement, in Long COVID. Oxaloacetate is an energy metabolite that holds a key place in the TCA cycle – the cycle that is essential for the generation of energy.
Sponsor: OMF
Study duration: 18 months
Conducted at The Harvard ME/CFS Collaboration at the Harvard Affiliated Hospitals
The study will examine EEG frequencies (electrical activity occurring in the brain) of sleep and wakefulness in ME/CFS patients. Concurrently, Dr. Jonas Bergquist will evaluate cerebrospinal fluid proteomics at the Uppsala Collaborative Research Center. Dr Bergquist hopes to identify orexin (a neuropeptide that regulates arousal, and wakefulness) and related proteomic inflammatory markers in patients who have developed ME/CFS.
Join the world’s largest genetic ME/CFS study! We aim to find genetic causes of why people become ill with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) with our groundbreaking research. Join us.
Decode ME opens for first participants January 31, 2022. Read more here.
Novel Dynamic Proteomics Approaches to Investigate the Systems Level Pathology of ME/CFS.
A pilot study from researchers at Nottingham University (UK) will dynamically examine proteins in people with ME/CFS and compare them to healthy controls. This impressive team of experts need 10 females with ME/CFS between 20 and 50 years old (and 10 healthy females of similar age) at this stage, but we hope that if the results prove interesting, then they will be able to apply for a much bigger grant and recruit more of both sexes in the future.”
