Hawton, K E, Hengeveld, M W · Nederlands tijdschrift voor geneeskunde · 1991
This 1991 review article examines the psychiatric aspects of chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), exploring how mental health factors relate to the condition. The authors discuss the connection between psychiatric symptoms and fatigue, helping to clarify whether psychological issues cause ME/CFS or occur alongside it. This work contributed to early medical understanding of how ME/CFS affects both the body and mind.
Early clinical perspectives on ME/CFS psychiatry remain historically important for understanding how the field evolved from viewing the condition through a primarily psychiatric lens to recognizing its biological basis. This paper reflects 1990s medical thinking and helped shape subsequent research directions regarding psychiatric comorbidity versus disease etiology in ME/CFS.
This review does not establish that psychiatric conditions cause ME/CFS, nor does it prove that ME/CFS is primarily a psychiatric disorder. As a narrative review without new empirical data, it cannot demonstrate causal mechanisms or provide quantitative evidence about the prevalence of psychiatric symptoms in ME/CFS populations.
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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