Leiblum, Sandra, Seehuus, Martin, Goldmeier, David et al. · The journal of sexual medicine · 2007 · DOI
This study surveyed 156 women about persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD), a condition involving unwanted arousal sensations. Women with full PGAD were more likely to experience depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and chronic fatigue compared to women with milder symptoms or no condition. The researchers suggest that anxiety and worry about these sensations may play a role in making PGAD worse.
This study is relevant to ME/CFS patients because 10% of women with PGAD reported chronic fatigue syndrome—a notably higher rate than the general population—suggesting a potential overlap in these conditions. Understanding how anxiety and heightened body awareness may amplify involuntary physiological symptoms provides a framework for understanding similar mechanisms in ME/CFS, where interoceptive dysregulation and anxiety are common.
This study does not establish that anxiety causes PGAD or CFS, only that they co-occur; the direction of causality remains unclear. The web-based convenience sample may not represent all women with PGAD, limiting generalizability. Cross-sectional design prevents determining whether depression and anxiety precede or result from PGAD symptoms.
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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