McInnis, Opal A, McQuaid, Robyn J, Bombay, Amy et al. · Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2015 · DOI
People with ME/CFS and fibromyalgia face more stigma and judgment from others compared to people with more widely recognized illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis. This study found that when women with ME/CFS have good social support, they are less likely to hide their illness due to shame. However, women with ME/CFS reported finding less personal growth and positive change from their illness experience compared to women with other chronic conditions.
This study highlights that ME/CFS patients experience distinctive psychosocial challenges including elevated stigma and difficulty accessing the psychological benefits that other chronically ill patients derive from their illness experience. Understanding how social support can buffer stigma-related isolation in ME/CFS may inform interventions to improve mental health outcomes and quality of life.
This cross-sectional design cannot establish causality or temporal relationships—whether stigma causes reduced posttraumatic growth, or whether other factors drive both. The study also does not determine whether the observed differences stem from disease-specific characteristics, illness uncertainty, or broader societal misconceptions about ME/CFS. Small to moderate sample sizes limit generalizability, and the findings apply specifically to women and may not represent men with these conditions.
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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