Banks, J, Prior, L · Social science & medicine (1982) · 2001 · DOI
This study observed conversations between ME/CFS patients and doctors in a UK clinic to understand how they think about the condition differently. Patients and doctors often disagreed about whether ME/CFS is a disease of the body or the mind, and these disagreements shaped how treatment was discussed. The researchers found that these conversations were really about who gets to decide what ME/CFS actually is.
This research highlights a critical communication gap in ME/CFS care: patients and clinicians may be operating from fundamentally different understandings of the condition, which can affect treatment decisions and patient satisfaction. Understanding these conflicts helps explain why some patients feel dismissed or misunderstood in medical settings and underscores the importance of shared decision-making in CFS management.
This study does not establish whether patients' or clinicians' conceptualizations are more medically accurate, nor does it prove that disagreements in the clinic are harmful to outcomes. It is also a single-site observational study from 2001, so findings may not reflect current clinical practice or extend to other healthcare settings.
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
Banks, J & Prior, L (2001). Doing things with illness. The micro politics of the CFS clinic.. Social science & medicine (1982). https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-9536(00)00117-9
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-banks-2001-doing-things,
author = {Banks, J and Prior, L},
title = {Doing things with illness. The micro politics of the CFS clinic.},
journal = {Social science & medicine (1982)},
year = {2001},
doi = {10.1016/s0277-9536(00)00117-9},
note = {PubMed: 11144910},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/banks-2001-doing-things},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/banks-2001-doing-things
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