Oh, Hans, Smith, Lee, Koyanagi, Ai · Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020 · DOI
This study looked at whether people who experience psychotic symptoms (like unusual beliefs or perceptions) also tend to have more physical health problems. Researchers surveyed a representative group of American adults and found that people reporting lifetime psychotic experiences were more likely to have conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain, sleep disorders, migraines, and gastrointestinal problems. The more health conditions someone had, the stronger the association with psychotic experiences.
This study is important for ME/CFS patients because it identifies chronic fatigue syndrome as one of several health conditions associated with psychotic experiences, suggesting a potential link between systemic illness burden and psychiatric symptoms. Understanding these associations may help validate the complexity of ME/CFS as a multi-system condition and encourage integrated assessment of both physical and psychiatric manifestations in affected individuals.
This study does not prove that any of these health conditions cause psychotic experiences, or vice versa. The cross-sectional design means researchers measured everything at one point in time, so they cannot determine whether health conditions preceded psychotic experiences or developed after them. The findings show correlation, not causation, and cannot rule out shared underlying biological factors or reporting bias as explanations for the associations.
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 →
Spotted an error in this entry? Report it →