Avni, Chen, Morr, Maya, Sinai, Dana et al. · The Journal of nervous and mental disease · 2025 · DOI
This study looked at how often mental health conditions like anxiety and depression occur in people with fibromyalgia compared to people with other long-term illnesses and healthy people. Researchers found that fibromyalgia patients had the highest rates of psychiatric conditions overall, with more than half experiencing anxiety and about half experiencing depression. The study suggests that treating fibromyalgia effectively requires addressing both the physical pain and mental health aspects together.
ME/CFS shares significant clinical overlap with fibromyalgia, including chronic fatigue, widespread pain, and psychiatric comorbidities. This study provides valuable comparative data showing that psychiatric conditions are substantially elevated in fibromyalgia, which has implications for understanding similar patterns in ME/CFS and highlights the importance of integrated mental health care in management strategies. Understanding psychiatric burden across related conditions can inform better screening and treatment approaches for ME/CFS patients.
This study does not establish whether psychiatric conditions cause fibromyalgia symptoms, result from living with chronic illness, or reflect shared underlying biological mechanisms—it demonstrates association only. The findings are specific to fibromyalgia and do not directly apply to ME/CFS, despite clinical similarities. Retrospective health care data may not capture all psychiatric diagnoses or reflect true prevalence in the broader population.
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
Avni, Chen, Morr, Maya, Sinai, Dana, & Toren, Paz (2025). Psychiatric Comorbidities in Fibromyalgia: A Comparison With Chronic Conditions and Healthy Controls.. The Journal of nervous and mental disease. https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0000000000001836
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-avni-2025-psychiatric-comorbidities,
author = {Avni, Chen and Morr, Maya and Sinai, Dana and Toren, Paz},
title = {Psychiatric Comorbidities in Fibromyalgia: A Comparison With Chronic Conditions and Healthy Controls.},
journal = {The Journal of nervous and mental disease},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1097/NMD.0000000000001836},
note = {PubMed: 40668086},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/avni-2025-psychiatric-comorbidities},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-25. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/avni-2025-psychiatric-comorbidities
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