Faulkner, Susan, Smith, Andrew · British journal of health psychology · 2008 · DOI
This study tracked 21 ME/CFS patients and 18 healthy people over 15 weeks to see if stress affects how often they catch colds and respiratory infections. ME/CFS patients caught infections much more frequently than healthy people, and importantly, high stress levels in one week predicted who would get sick the next week. The same stress also made their fatigue symptoms worse.
This research provides evidence that psychological stress may be a modifiable risk factor for infection susceptibility in ME/CFS patients, suggesting that stress management interventions could potentially reduce infection frequency and symptom severity. Understanding the stress-infection-fatigue link helps validate patients' experiences and may inform holistic treatment approaches.
This study demonstrates correlation between stress and infection timing, not causation—other unmeasured factors could influence both stress and infection susceptibility simultaneously. The small sample size (21 CFS patients) and reliance on self-reported symptoms limit generalizability. The study cannot establish whether stress directly suppresses immune function or operates through other biological mechanisms.
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
Faulkner, Susan & Smith, Andrew (2008). A longitudinal study of the relationship between psychological distress and recurrence of upper respiratory tract infections in chronic fatigue syndrome.. British journal of health psychology. https://doi.org/10.1348/135910706X171469
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-faulkner-2008-longitudinal-study,
author = {Faulkner, Susan and Smith, Andrew},
title = {A longitudinal study of the relationship between psychological distress and recurrence of upper respiratory tract infections in chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {British journal of health psychology},
year = {2008},
doi = {10.1348/135910706X171469},
note = {PubMed: 17535488},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/faulkner-2008-longitudinal-study},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/faulkner-2008-longitudinal-study
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