Moss-Morris, Rona, Chalder, Trudie · Journal of psychosomatic research · 2003 · DOI
This study compared how people with ME/CFS and people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) view their illnesses and how disabled they feel. Researchers found that people with ME/CFS believe their symptoms are caused by a virus or immune problem, think their symptoms affect more areas of daily life, and report greater difficulty with work and social activities compared to RA patients—even though both groups have similar levels of physical disability.
This research suggests that how ME/CFS patients understand and think about their illness—their perceptions—may play an important role in how disabled they become. Understanding these illness perceptions could help develop better psychological and educational interventions to improve outcomes for ME/CFS patients.
This study cannot prove that negative illness perceptions cause ME/CFS disability; it only shows they occur together. The cross-sectional design prevents determination of causality or temporal relationships. The study also does not establish whether these perceptions reflect accurate assessment of illness severity or represent distorted thinking.
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
Moss-Morris, Rona & Chalder, Trudie (2003). Illness perceptions and levels of disability in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis.. Journal of psychosomatic research. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3999(03)00013-8
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-moss-morris-2003-illness-perceptions,
author = {Moss-Morris, Rona and Chalder, Trudie},
title = {Illness perceptions and levels of disability in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis.},
journal = {Journal of psychosomatic research},
year = {2003},
doi = {10.1016/s0022-3999(03)00013-8},
note = {PubMed: 14507540},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/moss-morris-2003-illness-perceptions},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/moss-morris-2003-illness-perceptions
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