Dendy, C, Cooper, M, Sharpe, M · Behaviour research and therapy · 2001 · DOI
This study looked at how people with ME/CFS interpret their physical symptoms—whether they tend to see them as signs of physical illness versus emotional stress. Researchers gave patients with ME/CFS, depression, multiple sclerosis, and healthy people a questionnaire about how they understand their symptoms. They found that people with ME/CFS were more likely to attribute their symptoms to physical causes and less likely to see them as related to emotional feelings, even compared to MS patients.
Understanding how ME/CFS patients interpret their symptoms is crucial for clinical care, as it affects how patients communicate with doctors and make health decisions. This research challenges assumptions about whether ME/CFS is primarily psychological and suggests patients may have a distinct pattern of symptom interpretation that differs from depression, potentially supporting a biological basis for the condition.
This study does not prove that physical symptom interpretation is correct or that ME/CFS is definitively a physical illness—it only shows that patients interpret symptoms this way. The study cannot determine whether these interpretation patterns are a cause or result of ME/CFS, nor does it identify the underlying biological mechanisms. The cross-sectional design means we cannot determine if these patterns change over time or how they develop.
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
Dendy, C, Cooper, M, & Sharpe, M (2001). Interpretation of symptoms in chronic fatigue syndrome.. Behaviour research and therapy. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7967(00)00116-9
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-dendy-2001-interpretation-symptoms,
author = {Dendy, C and Cooper, M and Sharpe, M},
title = {Interpretation of symptoms in chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Behaviour research and therapy},
year = {2001},
doi = {10.1016/s0005-7967(00)00116-9},
note = {PubMed: 11686271},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/dendy-2001-interpretation-symptoms},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/dendy-2001-interpretation-symptoms
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