Csef, H · Fortschritte der Medizin · 1998
This review examines three similar conditions—Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Idiopathic Environmental Intolerance (IEI), and Sick Building Syndrome (SBS)—that cause people to feel sick when exposed to ordinary environmental triggers like chemicals or buildings. The authors note these conditions share important similarities with ME/CFS and fibromyalgia, and discuss different treatment approaches. The review highlights how controversial these conditions are, with some doctors accepting them while others remain skeptical.
This review is important because it recognizes the overlap between environmental sensitivity syndromes and ME/CFS, validating patient experiences of environmental triggers and suggesting these conditions may share underlying mechanisms. Understanding these connections helps ME/CFS patients and clinicians recognize that environmental sensitivities may be part of the disease process rather than psychological or coincidental.
This review does not establish the biological mechanisms causing MCS, IEI, SBS, or their relationship to ME/CFS—it is descriptive rather than mechanistic. The review does not prove that all three conditions are identical or that they share a single etiology. It does not resolve the fundamental scientific controversy about whether these are organic disease entities or represent other phenomena.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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