Monden, Rei, Rosmalen, Judith G M, Wardenaar, Klaas J et al. · Psychological medicine · 2022 · DOI
This large Dutch study followed over 152,000 people for an average of 2.4 years to identify what factors predict who develops ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, or irritable bowel syndrome. While these conditions are often grouped together, the researchers found that each syndrome had mostly different predictors, suggesting they may develop through different biological or psychological pathways rather than sharing one common cause.
For ME/CFS patients and researchers, this study challenges the assumption that these functional syndromes stem from a single cause, potentially redirecting research toward condition-specific mechanisms. Understanding distinct risk factors for ME/CFS could lead to more targeted prevention and treatment strategies rather than applying one-size-fits-all approaches.
This study does not prove that ME/CFS, IBS, and fibromyalgia have completely separate causes—shared predictors do exist for all three. The findings are correlational and cannot establish causation. Additionally, reliance on self-reported diagnoses without clinical confirmation may have affected the accuracy of syndrome classification.
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
Monden, Rei, Rosmalen, Judith G M, Wardenaar, Klaas J, & Creed, Francis (2022). Predictors of new onsets of irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia: the lifelines study.. Psychological medicine. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291720001774
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-monden-2022-predictors-new,
author = {Monden, Rei and Rosmalen, Judith G M and Wardenaar, Klaas J and Creed, Francis},
title = {Predictors of new onsets of irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia: the lifelines study.},
journal = {Psychological medicine},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.1017/S0033291720001774},
note = {PubMed: 32546287},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/monden-2022-predictors-new},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/monden-2022-predictors-new
Contribute
Private, reviewed by a human. Not a public comment thread.