Contested illness

Contested illnesses or contested disorders are those in which "different 'experts' have different views as to the causes, and they are often considered medically unexplained.

Psychosocial theories
Historically, a number of different illnesses have been contested illnesses at some point, and as a result were treated as psychosomatic illnesses or resulted in the inappropriate blaming of particular people - often women - for causing them, for example Parkinson's disease was explained as psychosomatic, schizophrenia was supposed to be caused by emotionally distant mothers, and peptic stomach ulcers were said to be caused by stress before the discovery of H. pylori bacteria.

ME/CFS
The treatment of ME/CFS has been hotly contested for many years, with the controversial use of cognitive behavioral therapy, a form of psychotherapy, and graded exercise therapy, a behavioral treatment becoming the dominant approaches in the early 21st century.

From around 2016, a paradigm shift began, with cognitive and behavioral treatments largely abandoned, and symptomatic treatment and greater acceptance of medical abnormalities in patients with ME/CFS.