An interleukin-1 receptor antagonist offers no benefits for women with chronic fatigue syndrome, according to a Dutch study.
Some 50 women with severe fatigue took part in a randomised control trial at Radboud University Medical Centre using the drug anakinra.
Other studies of interleukin-1 drug inhibition have reported positive effects on fatigue severity.
This has not been supported by the randomised trial, reported last night in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Women received injections of the drug – or placebo – for four weeks and then 20 weeks of follow-up.
The researchers, led by Dr Megan Roerink, assessed the impact on fatigue severity and also on secondary outcomes, such as pain severity, physical and social functioning and psychological distress.
They report that there were no clinically meaningful differences in fatigue levels between the drug and placebo – and no significant differences in secondary outcomes.
Dr Roerink writes: "If IL-1 plays a role in CFS, blocking it with anakinra has no effect."
Annals of Internal Medicine 7 March 2017
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