Bileviciute-Ljungar, Indre, Maroti, Daniel, Bejerot, Susanne · Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2018 · DOI
This study compared autistic traits in people with ME/CFS, people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and healthy people. Although ME/CFS and autism share some overlapping symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and sensitivity to sound and light, the study found that people with ME/CFS did not show more autistic traits than healthy controls. People with autism did score higher on the autism assessment, showing the test can distinguish between the conditions.
This finding helps clarify the relationship between ME/CFS and autism, addressing a common clinical question about whether these conditions overlap in their neurodevelopmental profiles. For patients and researchers, it suggests that symptom overlap may reflect shared physiological mechanisms rather than shared autism-spectrum characteristics, potentially redirecting diagnostic and treatment approaches toward ME/CFS-specific mechanisms.
This study does not prove that ME/CFS and autism are completely unrelated or that there is no underlying neurobiological overlap. It measures only self-reported autistic traits using one specific questionnaire; other assessment methods or objective measures might reveal different patterns. The study also cannot determine whether symptom overlap is coincidental, mechanistically distinct, or reflects limitations in how current diagnostic tools capture autistic traits in ME/CFS populations.
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
Bileviciute-Ljungar, Indre, Maroti, Daniel, & Bejerot, Susanne (2018). Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome do not score higher on the autism-spectrum quotient than healthy controls: Comparison with autism spectrum disorder.. Scandinavian journal of psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12451
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-bileviciute-ljungar-2018-patients-chronic,
author = {Bileviciute-Ljungar, Indre and Maroti, Daniel and Bejerot, Susanne},
title = {Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome do not score higher on the autism-spectrum quotient than healthy controls: Comparison with autism spectrum disorder.},
journal = {Scandinavian journal of psychology},
year = {2018},
doi = {10.1111/sjop.12451},
note = {PubMed: 29738079},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/bileviciute-ljungar-2018-patients-chronic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/bileviciute-ljungar-2018-patients-chronic
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