Collin, Simon M, Tilling, Kate, Joinson, Carol et al. · The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine · 2015 · DOI
This study followed over 5,600 children from birth to age 13 to see whether mothers' anxiety and depression, and children's own psychological stress, were linked to severe, disabling fatigue in early adolescence. Researchers found that children whose mothers experienced anxiety or depression during pregnancy and early childhood had a higher risk of developing chronic fatigue at age 13. The findings suggest that family-based approaches to treatment may be important for children with disabling fatigue.
This study identifies maternal psychological factors as early risk markers for developing disabling fatigue in adolescence, highlighting that ME/CFS-like illness may have psychological antecedents involving family dynamics rather than being purely biological. Understanding these premorbid risk factors could inform preventive strategies and family-centered interventions for children at high risk of chronic disabling fatigue.
This study does not prove that maternal anxiety and depression *cause* chronic disabling fatigue, only that they are associated with increased risk; correlation does not establish causation. The study does not determine whether maternal psychological factors act through shared genetics, environmental stress, illness behavior modeling, or other mechanisms. Additionally, the study does not assess post-onset factors or establish that these associations hold across all ME/CFS phenotypes or case definitions.
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 →
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