Hannon, Kerin, Peters, Sarah, Fisher, Louise et al. · BMC family practice · 2012 · DOI
This study asked patients, carers, and doctors in North West England what would help them better diagnose and manage ME/CFS in general practice. The researchers found that patients want to be believed and taken seriously, while doctors said they need better training and support. Based on everyone's feedback, the team created practical tools including a DVD for patients, information leaflets, and online training for doctors.
Many ME/CFS patients report difficulty obtaining timely diagnosis and feeling dismissed by healthcare providers. By identifying barriers from both patient and provider perspectives and co-designing resources accordingly, this work directly addresses NICE guideline recommendations for confident early diagnosis and could improve the clinical experience and management outcomes for ME/CFS patients in primary care settings.
This study does not demonstrate that the developed resources actually improve diagnostic accuracy, patient outcomes, or healthcare provider confidence when implemented in practice. It is a resource development study based on stakeholder input, not a randomized controlled trial or implementation evaluation, so it cannot prove causality or measure real-world effectiveness of the interventions created.
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
Hannon, Kerin, Peters, Sarah, Fisher, Louise, Riste, Lisa, Wearden, Alison, Lovell, Karina, et al. (2012). Developing resources to support the diagnosis and management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalitis (CFS/ME) in primary care: a qualitative study.. BMC family practice. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2296-13-93
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-hannon-2012-developing-resources,
author = {Hannon, Kerin and Peters, Sarah and Fisher, Louise and Riste, Lisa and Wearden, Alison and Lovell, Karina and Turner, Pam and Leech, Yvonne and Chew-Graham, Carolyn},
title = {Developing resources to support the diagnosis and management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalitis (CFS/ME) in primary care: a qualitative study.},
journal = {BMC family practice},
year = {2012},
doi = {10.1186/1471-2296-13-93},
note = {PubMed: 22998151},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hannon-2012-developing-resources},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hannon-2012-developing-resources
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