Borsini, A, Hepgul, N, Mondelli, V et al. · Psychological medicine · 2014 · DOI
This review looked at 31 studies to see if stressful experiences during childhood might increase the chance of developing ME/CFS or fibromyalgia later in life. The researchers found that people who experienced childhood stress were 2-3 times more likely to develop these fatigue conditions compared to those without such experiences. They also found that people with these conditions who had experienced childhood stress were more likely to also develop depression, anxiety, and pain.
Understanding how childhood experiences may contribute to ME/CFS development could help clinicians better identify at-risk individuals and inform treatment approaches that address trauma-related biological changes. This research validates patients' experiences of childhood stress as potentially relevant to disease etiology and may reduce stigma around psychiatric comorbidities in ME/CFS.
This review demonstrates association, not causation—childhood stress may increase susceptibility, but does not definitively prove it causes ME/CFS. The review cannot identify specific biological mechanisms or determine whether childhood stress is a primary cause versus one risk factor among many. Individual studies included may have varied in case definitions, measurement of childhood stressors, and control for confounding variables.
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
Borsini, A, Hepgul, N, Mondelli, V, Chalder, T, & Pariante, C M (2014). Childhood stressors in the development of fatigue syndromes: a review of the past 20 years of research.. Psychological medicine. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291713002468
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-borsini-2014-childhood-stressors,
author = {Borsini, A and Hepgul, N and Mondelli, V and Chalder, T and Pariante, C M},
title = {Childhood stressors in the development of fatigue syndromes: a review of the past 20 years of research.},
journal = {Psychological medicine},
year = {2014},
doi = {10.1017/S0033291713002468},
note = {PubMed: 24093427},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/borsini-2014-childhood-stressors},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/borsini-2014-childhood-stressors
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