Gutenbrunner, C, Linden, M, Gerdes, N et al. · Die Rehabilitation · 2005 · DOI
This paper discusses how chronic fatigue and exhaustion affect people undergoing rehabilitation for various medical conditions. The authors reviewed how fatigue is defined, how often it occurs in different patient groups (from 50-90% depending on the condition), and whether rehabilitation can help improve it. They suggest that fatigue symptoms do improve somewhat with rehabilitation, though some symptoms can remain.
This study is relevant to ME/CFS because it highlights how pervasive and disabling fatigue is across multiple medical and psychiatric rehabilitation settings, and it calls for systematic classification and assessment tools for fatigue as a core rehabilitation outcome. Understanding fatigue as a functional impairment rather than solely a psychiatric symptom may help clinicians better recognize and measure post-exertional malaise and exhaustion in ME/CFS patients.
This study does not establish the underlying biological mechanisms of chronic fatigue, nor does it directly address ME/CFS as a distinct diagnosis. The study is retrospective and consensus-based rather than prospective or experimental, so it cannot prove causation or establish whether fatigue improvements are sustained long-term. The prevalence figures are descriptive rather than based on rigorous epidemiological methodology.
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
Gutenbrunner, C, Linden, M, Gerdes, N, Ehlebracht-König, I, & Grosch, E (2005). [Significance of the chronic fatigue syndrome in rehabilitation medicine--status and perspectives].. Die Rehabilitation. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2005-866857
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-gutenbrunner-2005-significance-chronic,
author = {Gutenbrunner, C and Linden, M and Gerdes, N and Ehlebracht-König, I and Grosch, E},
title = {[Significance of the chronic fatigue syndrome in rehabilitation medicine--status and perspectives].},
journal = {Die Rehabilitation},
year = {2005},
doi = {10.1055/s-2005-866857},
note = {PubMed: 15933954},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gutenbrunner-2005-significance-chronic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/gutenbrunner-2005-significance-chronic
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