Woods, T O, Goldberg, D P · British medical bulletin · 1991 · DOI
This review examines how psychological and social factors may play a role in ME/CFS. The authors suggest that while a viral illness may trigger the condition in people with certain personality traits, over time the disorder becomes maintained by how people and doctors respond to the illness rather than the original virus itself. They discuss how doctor-patient interactions and how people cope with their illness may contribute to keeping ME/CFS going.
This perspective is important because it addresses the contentious debate about psychological versus biological factors in ME/CFS. Understanding how both viral illness and subsequent psychosocial factors interact may help inform more effective, compassionate treatment approaches that don't dismiss the reality of patients' symptoms.
This review does not prove that ME/CFS is primarily psychological in origin, nor does it establish causation between personality traits and disease development. Being an editorial rather than an empirical study, it presents a theoretical framework without new data and does not provide quantitative evidence about the relative contributions of biological versus psychological mechanisms.
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 →