Abigail Brown

Abigail A. Brown, PhD., is a post-doctoral fellow at Eating Recovery Center-Insight Behavioral Health in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She received her Doctorate in Clinical-Community Psychology at the Center for Community Research, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, with Dr. Leonard Jason as her academic advisor. Her research work focuses on myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), specifically diagnosis of the condition, case definition clarification, the impact of medical, social and familial stigma on quality of life, and non-pharmacological treatment interventions. Her doctoral thesis suggested that post-exertional malaise (PEM) should be considered a cardinal symptom of ME and CFS.

Doctoral Dissertation

 * 2017 - Investigating Post-Exertional Malaise as a Core Symptom of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Meta-Analytic Approach

Book chapter

 * 2013, The implications of sensitization and kindling for chronic fatigue syndrome

Notable studies in ME/CFS

 * 2009, CFS: A Review of Epidemiology and Natural History Studies (Full Text)
 * 2010, Illness duration and coping style in chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2011, A natural history study of chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2011, Fatigue Scales and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Issues of Sensitivity and Specificity (Full Text)
 * 2012, Data Mining: Comparing the Empiric CFS to the Canadian ME/CFS Case Definition (Full Text)
 * 2012, Factor analysis of the Beck Depression Inventory-II with patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)


 * 2012, Predictors of Fatigue among Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Full text)
 * 2013, Contrasting chronic fatigue syndrome versus myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2013, Energy conservation/envelope theory interventions (Full Text)
 * 2014, Examining case definition criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis (Full Text)
 * 2014, Validating a measure of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome symptomatology (Full Text)
 * 2015, Issues in Estimating Rates of Pediatric Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis in a Community-based Sample (Full Text)
 * 2015, Comparing and contrasting consensus versus empirical domains (Abstract)
 * 2015, Unintended Consequences of not Specifying Exclusionary Illnesses for Systemic Exertion Intolerance Disease (Full Text)
 * 2015, Reflections on the Institute of Medicine’s systemic exertion intolerance disease (Full Text)
 * 2015, Chronic fatigue syndrome versus systemic exertion intolerance disease (Abstract)
 * 2015, Factor Analysis of the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire: Identifying Core Domains (Full Text)
 * 2015, Test–retest reliability of the DePaul Symptom Questionnaire (Full Text)
 * 2015, Problems in Defining Post-Exertional Malaise (Full Text)
 * 2015, An assessment of fatigue in patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (reprinted in 2017) (Abstract)
 * 2016, Mortality in patients with myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2016, The Relationship between Age and Illness Duration in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2016, Are Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome different illnesses? A preliminary analysis (Full Text)
 * 2016, Identifying Key Symptoms Differentiating Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome from Multiple Sclerosis (Full Text)
 * 2016, Educational Priorities for Healthcare Providers and Name Suggestions for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Including the Patient Voice (Full Text)
 * 2016, Case definitions integrating empiric and consensus perspectives (Full Text)
 * 2017, Differentiating Multiple Sclerosis from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (Full Text)
 * 2018, A content analysis of chronic fatigue syndrome and myalgic encephalomyelitis in the news from 1987 to 2013 (Abstract)
 * 2018, Meta-analysis investigating post-exertional malaise between patients and controls (Abstract)

Online presence

 * LinkedIn
 * ResearchGate
 * Google Scholar