Heijmans, M J · Journal of psychosomatic research · 1998 · DOI
This study looked at how 98 ME/CFS patients' beliefs about their illness affected how they coped with it and their quality of life. The researchers found that patients who believed their illness was serious, couldn't be controlled, and couldn't be cured tended to cope passively and experienced worse physical functioning, social problems, and mental health issues. Importantly, these beliefs about the illness itself were stronger predictors of these outcomes than the coping strategies people used.
This research highlights that ME/CFS patients' beliefs and perceptions about their illness significantly impact their physical and mental health outcomes. Understanding these cognitive factors could help clinicians develop more targeted psychological interventions that address unhelpful illness beliefs, potentially improving quality of life alongside medical treatments.
This study does not prove that changing illness beliefs will necessarily improve outcomes—it only shows associations between beliefs and outcomes at one point in time. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causality or the direction of effects; it's unclear whether negative beliefs cause poor outcomes or poor outcomes reinforce negative beliefs. The study also cannot determine whether addressing cognitions alone would be sufficient without other treatments.
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
Heijmans, M J (1998). Coping and adaptive outcome in chronic fatigue syndrome: importance of illness cognitions.. Journal of psychosomatic research. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3999(97)00265-1
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-heijmans-1998-coping-adaptive,
author = {Heijmans, M J},
title = {Coping and adaptive outcome in chronic fatigue syndrome: importance of illness cognitions.},
journal = {Journal of psychosomatic research},
year = {1998},
doi = {10.1016/s0022-3999(97)00265-1},
note = {PubMed: 9720854},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/heijmans-1998-coping-adaptive},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/heijmans-1998-coping-adaptive
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.