Haines, Cara, Loades, Maria, Davis, Cara · Clinical child psychology and psychiatry · 2019 · DOI
This study compared how teenagers with ME/CFS view their illness compared to teenagers with diabetes or arthritis. Teenagers with ME/CFS had very different beliefs about their condition—particularly about how much control they had over it, how long it would last, and how well they understood what was happening to them. The researchers suggest that helping teenagers with ME/CFS feel more in control and understand their condition better might help them cope better.
ME/CFS is characterized by unique psychological challenges including high uncertainty and social stigma, which may differ fundamentally from other chronic illnesses. Understanding how adolescents perceive their ME/CFS—particularly their sense of control and understanding—could inform targeted psychological interventions to improve coping and outcomes in this vulnerable population.
This study does not prove that changing illness perceptions will improve outcomes; it only shows associations between perceptions and diagnosis. The cross-sectional design cannot establish whether particular illness perceptions cause worse functioning or vice versa. The findings are preliminary and limited to adolescents in the UK NHS system, so results may not generalize to other age groups or healthcare systems.
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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Primary citation
Haines, Cara, Loades, Maria, & Davis, Cara (2019). Illness perceptions in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome and other physical health conditions: Application of the common sense model.. Clinical child psychology and psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359104519829796
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-haines-2019-illness-perceptions,
author = {Haines, Cara and Loades, Maria and Davis, Cara},
title = {Illness perceptions in adolescents with chronic fatigue syndrome and other physical health conditions: Application of the common sense model.},
journal = {Clinical child psychology and psychiatry},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1177/1359104519829796},
note = {PubMed: 30770020},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/haines-2019-illness-perceptions},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/haines-2019-illness-perceptions
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