Schulte-van Maaren, Yvonne W M, Giltay, Erik J, van Hemert, Albert M et al. · Journal of affective disorders · 2014 · DOI
This study established standard reference values for three questionnaires that measure different types of health concerns: body image worries, health anxiety, and fatigue/weakness. Researchers compared how 648 healthy people and 823 patients with these conditions answered the questionnaires, so doctors now have clear cutoff scores to help decide if treatments are working and when to adjust or stop therapy.
For ME/CFS patients, the CIS-20R reference values provide clinically meaningful cutoff scores to objectively track fatigue and functional impairment severity over time. These standardized reference values improve clinical decision-making about treatment effectiveness and inform appropriate timing for therapy adjustments or specialist referral. The study validates tools commonly used in routine outcome monitoring that directly affect care management decisions for ME/CFS patients.
This study does not prove that these questionnaires can diagnose ME/CFS or distinguish it from other fatigue-causing conditions—it only provides normative cutoff values. The cross-sectional design cannot establish whether changes on these scales predict clinical outcomes or recovery. The findings do not address whether these tools capture the specific pathophysiology of ME/CFS or are equally valid across different healthcare systems and 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 →
Spotted an error in this entry? Report it →