Abbey, S E · Ciba Foundation symposium · 1993 · DOI
This paper explores how psychological factors, personal beliefs about illness, and social influences may play a role in ME/CFS. The author examines how things like perfectionism, how people cope with stress, and the way doctors and media talk about ME/CFS can affect whether someone develops the condition or how severe their symptoms become.
This review highlights that ME/CFS involves complex interactions between biological, psychological, and social factors. Understanding these dimensions may improve diagnostic accuracy, reduce stigma, and inform more comprehensive treatment approaches that address both physical and psychological contributors to illness maintenance.
This editorial does not present new empirical data or proof that psychological factors cause ME/CFS. It does not establish that psychiatric illness is primary in ME/CFS, nor does it determine which factors are truly causative versus secondary consequences of chronic illness. The paper examines associations and theoretical relationships rather than definitive causal 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 →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Abbey, S E (1993). Somatization, illness attribution and the sociocultural psychiatry of chronic fatigue syndrome.. Ciba Foundation symposium. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470514382.ch14
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-abbey-1993-somatization-illness,
author = {Abbey, S E},
title = {Somatization, illness attribution and the sociocultural psychiatry of chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Ciba Foundation symposium},
year = {1993},
doi = {10.1002/9780470514382.ch14},
note = {PubMed: 8491101},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/abbey-1993-somatization-illness},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/abbey-1993-somatization-illness
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