Dziadkowiak, E, Sebastian, A, Wiland, P et al. · Scandinavian journal of rheumatology · 2015 · DOI
This study looked at brain electrical activity in patients with Sjögren's syndrome (an autoimmune disease affecting moisture-producing glands) to see if they had subtle thinking or processing problems. Researchers found that patients showed slightly delayed brain responses to cognitive tasks, and these delays were linked to how long they'd had the disease and how inflamed their salivary glands were. Patients with both Sjögren's syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome showed different patterns than those with Sjögren's syndrome alone.
This study provides objective electrophysiological evidence that autoimmune diseases like Sjögren's syndrome can affect cognitive processing, which has implications for understanding how inflammatory conditions contribute to fatigue and cognitive dysfunction in ME/CFS. The finding that patients with coexisting CFS showed distinct neurophysiological patterns suggests that CFS may involve specific brain dysfunction beyond the underlying autoimmune condition.
This study does not prove that cognitive dysfunction causes fatigue or vice versa—it only shows they can coexist. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causality or temporal relationships between inflammation, disease duration, and cognitive changes. The study also does not determine whether cognitive abnormalities are reversible or whether they worsen over time.
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
Dziadkowiak, E, Sebastian, A, Wiland, P, Waliszewska-Prosół, M, Wieczorek, M, Zagrajek, M, et al. (2015). Endogenous event-related potentials in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome without central nervous system involvement.. Scandinavian journal of rheumatology. https://doi.org/10.3109/03009742.2015.1032345
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-dziadkowiak-2015-endogenous-event,
author = {Dziadkowiak, E and Sebastian, A and Wiland, P and Waliszewska-Prosół, M and Wieczorek, M and Zagrajek, M and Ejma, M},
title = {Endogenous event-related potentials in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome without central nervous system involvement.},
journal = {Scandinavian journal of rheumatology},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.3109/03009742.2015.1032345},
note = {PubMed: 26271272},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/dziadkowiak-2015-endogenous-event},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/dziadkowiak-2015-endogenous-event
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