Hughes, A M, Chalder, T, Hirsch, C R et al. · Psychological medicine · 2017 · DOI
This study looked at whether people with ME/CFS notice illness-related information more than healthy people, and whether they tend to interpret unclear situations in a health-focused way. Researchers found that people with ME/CFS do pay more attention to fatigue-related words and are more likely to interpret ambiguous situations negatively related to their health compared to healthy controls. These thought patterns were connected to beliefs about fear and avoidance, suggesting they may help keep ME/CFS symptoms going.
Understanding how cognitive biases maintain ME/CFS symptoms is crucial for developing targeted psychological interventions. This study identifies specific, measurable cognitive patterns that could be modified therapeutically, offering potential pathways beyond symptom management to address underlying maintaining factors.
This study does not prove that cognitive biases cause ME/CFS or that they are the primary driver of the condition; it demonstrates association, not causation. The cross-sectional design cannot establish temporal relationships, so it's unclear whether these biases develop because of ME/CFS or contribute to symptom maintenance. It also does not measure objective biological markers or rule out biomedical contributions to the 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
Hughes, A M, Chalder, T, Hirsch, C R, & Moss-Morris, R (2017). An attention and interpretation bias for illness-specific information in chronic fatigue syndrome.. Psychological medicine. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291716002890
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-hughes-2017-attention-interpretation,
author = {Hughes, A M and Chalder, T and Hirsch, C R and Moss-Morris, R},
title = {An attention and interpretation bias for illness-specific information in chronic fatigue syndrome.},
journal = {Psychological medicine},
year = {2017},
doi = {10.1017/S0033291716002890},
note = {PubMed: 27894380},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hughes-2017-attention-interpretation},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/hughes-2017-attention-interpretation
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.