Owe, Jone Furlund, Næss, Halvor, Gjerde, Ivar Otto et al. · Tidsskrift for den Norske laegeforening : tidsskrift for praktisk medicin, ny raekke · 2016 · DOI
This study looked at 365 people who came to a hospital's neurology department because they thought they might have ME/CFS. The doctors found that only about 13% actually had ME/CFS, while nearly half of the patients had mental health or stress-related conditions instead. The study highlights how important it is for doctors to do thorough checks before deciding someone has ME/CFS, since other treatable conditions can cause similar fatigue symptoms.
This study is important because it shows that many patients referred for ME/CFS actually have other treatable conditions, particularly mental health disorders. For ME/CFS patients and researchers, this underscores the need for better diagnostic clarity and earlier identification of alternative causes, potentially reducing diagnostic delays and ensuring patients receive appropriate care faster.
This study does not prove that mental health diagnoses are more common than ME/CFS in the general population—it only reflects patterns in patients referred to a specialist neurology clinic, which likely enriches for certain diagnostic categories. It also does not establish causation or mechanisms, nor does it clarify whether psychiatric conditions coexist with ME/CFS or are differential diagnoses. The study design cannot determine whether long waiting times actually caused diagnostic delays or only correlate with them.
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 →