Bould, Helen, Collin, Simon M, Lewis, Glyn et al. · Archives of disease in childhood · 2013 · DOI
This study looked at how many young people with ME/CFS also experience depression. Researchers surveyed 542 children aged 12-18 and found that about 29% had depression—much higher than in the general population. Depression was more common in those with worse physical symptoms, higher disability, more pain, and poorer school attendance.
Depression is a common and undertreated comorbidity in pediatric ME/CFS that significantly impacts quality of life and recovery. This study establishes the need for systematic depression screening as standard care in specialist ME/CFS services for young people. Understanding the association between disease severity and depression can help clinicians identify high-risk patients and tailor interventions.
This study cannot establish whether depression causes worsening ME/CFS symptoms, whether ME/CFS symptoms cause depression, or whether both are consequences of underlying disease mechanisms. Cross-sectional data cannot determine causality or temporal relationships. The study also does not prove that treating depression will improve ME/CFS outcomes.
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
Bould, Helen, Collin, Simon M, Lewis, Glyn, Rimes, Katharine, & Crawley, Esther (2013). Depression in paediatric chronic fatigue syndrome.. Archives of disease in childhood. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2012-303396
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-bould-2013-depression-paediatric,
author = {Bould, Helen and Collin, Simon M and Lewis, Glyn and Rimes, Katharine and Crawley, Esther},
title = {Depression in paediatric chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Archives of disease in childhood},
year = {2013},
doi = {10.1136/archdischild-2012-303396},
note = {PubMed: 23619200},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/bould-2013-depression-paediatric},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/bould-2013-depression-paediatric
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