Glass, Isabel V, Frankenburg, Frances R, Fitzmaurice, Garrett M et al. · Journal of personality disorders · 2024 · DOI
This study followed 282 people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and other personality disorders for 8 years to see how their physical and mental health changed over time. People with BPD reported significantly more physical and emotional difficulties than the comparison group, and those who didn't recover had worse outcomes. The study found that certain conditions—like chronic fatigue syndrome, osteoarthritis, obesity, depression, and PTSD—were strongly linked to physical health problems in BPD patients.
This study is relevant to ME/CFS research because it identifies chronic fatigue syndrome as a significant predictor of physical impairment in a psychiatric population, highlighting the complex relationship between psychiatric conditions and fatigue-related illnesses. Understanding how CFS intersects with personality disorders and other comorbidities may help inform more comprehensive treatment approaches for patients experiencing both conditions.
This study does not establish that BPD causes chronic fatigue syndrome or vice versa—it only shows they co-occur. The study does not explain the mechanisms by which these conditions interact or whether one condition predisposes patients to develop the other. The findings are specific to BPD populations and may not generalize to ME/CFS patients without personality disorder diagnoses.
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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