Personality traits and patient attitudes in ME/CFS

From MEpedia, a crowd-sourced encyclopedia of ME and CFS science and history

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.[1]

Theory

Evidence

Perfectionism

Personality traits

Van Houdenhove (1995) found that ME/CFS patients were more active than average before their illness.[2]

Personality disorders

Personality disorders were not found to be any common in patients with ME/CFS than in the general population.[3]

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.[1]

Notable studies

  • 1995, Does high 'action-proneness' make people more vulnerable to chronic fatigue syndrome?[2] (Full text)
  • 2007, Personality and chronic fatigue syndrome: methodological and conceptual issues[4] (Full text) - a summary of other findings
  • 2013, Prevalence of DSM-IV Personality Disorders in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Controlled Study[3] (Abstract)

Letters, interviews and newspaper coverage

See also

Learn more

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Wood, B.; Wessely, S. (October 1999). "Personality and social attitudes in chronic fatigue syndrome". Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 47 (4): 385–397. ISSN 0022-3999. PMID 10616232.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Van Houdenhove, B.; Onghena, P.; Neerinckx, E.; Hellin, J. (July 1995). "Does high 'action-proneness' make people more vulnerable to chronic fatigue syndrome? A controlled psychometric study". Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 39 (5): 633–640. ISSN 0022-3999. PMID 7490698.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kempke, Stefan; Van Den Eede, Filip; Schotte, Chris; Claes, Stephan; Van Wambeke, Peter; Van Houdenhove, Boudewijn; Luyten, Patrick (June 1, 2013). "Prevalence of DSM-IV Personality Disorders in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Controlled Study". International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 20 (2): 219–228. doi:10.1007/s12529-012-9273-y. ISSN 1532-7558.
  4. ↑ van Geelen, Stefan M.; Sinnema, Gerben; Hermans, Hubert J.M.; Kuis, Wietse (December 1, 2007). "Personality and chronic fatigue syndrome: Methodological and conceptual issues". Clinical Psychology Review. 27 (8): 885–903. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2007.01.010. ISSN 0272-7358.
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