Hinds, Kate, Sutcliffe, Katy · Qualitative health research · 2019 · DOI
This study examined how doctors and patient advocates argue about chronic Lyme disease in published medical articles. The researchers found that the medical field is divided—some experts reject the diagnosis while patients and their advocates strongly support it. By analyzing these arguments, the authors tried to understand why this disagreement exists and how both sides talk about the illness differently.
This study directly parallels ME/CFS by examining how medically contested conditions become polarized between patient groups and medical institutions. Understanding the discourse patterns in similar conditions like CLD may help ME/CFS patients and advocates recognize and address legitimacy challenges and communication breakdowns in their own field.
This is a discourse analysis study, not a clinical investigation, so it does not establish whether chronic Lyme disease or its specific symptoms are real or imaginary—it only examines how arguments are constructed in published literature. The study does not provide epidemiological data, biological mechanisms, or diagnostic validation for any contested condition.
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
Hinds, Kate & Sutcliffe, Katy (2019). Heterodox and Orthodox Discourses in the Case of Lyme Disease: A Synthesis of Arguments.. Qualitative health research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732319846170
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-hinds-2019-heterodox-orthodox,
author = {Hinds, Kate and Sutcliffe, Katy},
title = {Heterodox and Orthodox Discourses in the Case of Lyme Disease: A Synthesis of Arguments.},
journal = {Qualitative health research},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1177/1049732319846170},
note = {PubMed: 31079542},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hinds-2019-heterodox-orthodox},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hinds-2019-heterodox-orthodox
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