Personality traits and patient attitudes in ME/CFS

A number of different personality traits and attitudes have been proposed as possible risk factors, and/or perpetuating factors in people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, for example perfectionism.

Some proponents of the biopsychosocial or psychosocial model of ME/CFS have also claimed ME patients have negative attitudes toward mental illness, but this view is not supported by research.

Personality traits
Van Houdenhove (1995) found that ME/CFS patients were more active than average before their illness.

Personality disorders
Personality disorders were not found to be any common in patients with ME/CFS than in the general population.

Attitudes towards mental illness
Wood and Wessely researched attitudes towards mental illness and personality traits in people with chronic fatigue syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis in 1999, finding that attitudes towards mental illness are were about the same in both groups of patients.

Notable studies

 * 1995, Does high 'action-proneness' make people more vulnerable to chronic fatigue syndrome? (Full text)


 * 1999, Personality and social attitudes in chronic fatigue syndrome.


 * 2007, Personality and chronic fatigue syndrome: methodological and conceptual issues (Full text) - a summary of other findings


 * 2013, Prevalence of DSM-IV Personality Disorders in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Controlled Study (Abstract)