Brimmer, Dana J, Fridinger, Frederick, Lin, Jin-Mann S et al. · BMC family practice · 2010 · DOI
Researchers surveyed over 4,000 U.S. doctors and nurses to find out how much they know about ME/CFS and what they think about diagnosing and treating it. Most healthcare providers had heard of ME/CFS and knew its basic symptoms, but many said they rarely diagnose it. The study found that doctors got their information mainly from medical journals, the internet, and continuing education courses.
Understanding healthcare provider knowledge and attitudes toward ME/CFS is critical because diagnostic and management barriers significantly impact patient outcomes. This study establishes a baseline for measuring the effectiveness of future educational interventions and identifies specific knowledge gaps that need to be addressed in medical training.
This study does not prove that improved provider knowledge leads to better patient outcomes, nor does it establish whether low diagnosis rates reflect genuine diagnostic rarity or underrecognition. The cross-sectional design cannot determine whether attitudes influence diagnostic behavior or vice versa, and the convenience sample may not represent all U.S. healthcare providers.
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
Brimmer, Dana J, Fridinger, Frederick, Lin, Jin-Mann S, & Reeves, William C (2010). U.S. healthcare providers' knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions concerning Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. BMC family practice. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-11-28
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-brimmer-2010-healthcare-providers,
author = {Brimmer, Dana J and Fridinger, Frederick and Lin, Jin-Mann S and Reeves, William C},
title = {U.S. healthcare providers' knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions concerning Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {BMC family practice},
year = {2010},
doi = {10.1186/1471-2296-11-28},
note = {PubMed: 20406491},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/brimmer-2010-healthcare-providers},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/brimmer-2010-healthcare-providers
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