Band, Rebecca, Barrowclough, Christine, Wearden, Alison · Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2014 · DOI
This study looked at how the emotional responses of family members or partners affect ME/CFS patients' health outcomes. Researchers found that when significant others were overly critical or overly involved, patients tended to have worse fatigue, more disability, and more depression 6 months later. The emotional support you receive from those close to you appears to matter for how your ME/CFS progresses.
Understanding how family and partner relationships influence ME/CFS outcomes could inform new treatment approaches that include significant others, potentially improving both patient and caregiver wellbeing. This research highlights that psychosocial factors in the home environment are relevant to disease progression, supporting a biopsychosocial understanding of ME/CFS.
This study demonstrates association, not causation—high expressed emotion correlates with worse outcomes, but we cannot conclude that criticism or overinvolvement directly causes fatigue worsening. The small sample size limits generalizability, and the study does not prove these relationships hold equally across all patient-significant other types or cultural contexts.
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
Band, Rebecca, Barrowclough, Christine, & Wearden, Alison (2014). The impact of significant other expressed emotion on patient outcomes in chronic fatigue syndrome.. Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000086
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-band-2014-impact-significant,
author = {Band, Rebecca and Barrowclough, Christine and Wearden, Alison},
title = {The impact of significant other expressed emotion on patient outcomes in chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association},
year = {2014},
doi = {10.1037/hea0000086},
note = {PubMed: 25180548},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/band-2014-impact-significant},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/band-2014-impact-significant
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