Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and the biopsychosocial model: a review of patient harm and distress in the medical encounter.

Why It Matters

This study validates patients' documented experiences of medical distress and systematically documents how certain clinical frameworks may cause harm rather than help. It provides evidence-based grounds for questioning current treatment approaches and advocates for clinical practices that better align with patient values and biomedical evidence. For the ME/CFS community, this review supports calls for medical model reform and more respectful, evidence-informed clinical encounters.

What This Study Does Not Prove

This review does not quantify how frequently each type of harm occurs or determine which patients are most vulnerable. It does not establish definitive mechanisms of harm or prove that biopsychosocial approaches cause more damage than no treatment. The narrative methodology cannot definitively separate correlation from causation in complex clinical encounters.

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