Nater, Urs M, Wagner, Dieter, Solomon, Laura et al. · Journal of psychosomatic research · 2006 · DOI
This study looked at how people with ME/CFS cope with their illness compared to people without ME/CFS. Researchers found that people with ME/CFS tend to use more escape-avoiding coping strategies (like avoidance or wishful thinking) than healthy controls. Interestingly, people with unexplained fatigue that didn't meet full ME/CFS criteria used similar coping styles to those with ME/CFS, suggesting this pattern may be common across fatiguing illnesses.
This study demonstrates that maladaptive coping patterns are a measurable feature of ME/CFS in the general population, not just in clinical samples. Understanding these coping styles may help clinicians identify patients at risk and develop targeted psychological interventions to improve outcomes.
This study does not prove that escape-avoiding coping causes ME/CFS; it only shows an association. The cross-sectional design cannot establish causality—escape-avoiding coping might develop as a consequence of living with CFS rather than contributing to its development. Additionally, the findings may not generalize beyond the Wichita population studied.
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
Nater, Urs M, Wagner, Dieter, Solomon, Laura, Jones, James F, Unger, Elizabeth R, Papanicolaou, Dimitris A, et al. (2006). Coping styles in people with chronic fatigue syndrome identified from the general population of Wichita, KS.. Journal of psychosomatic research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2006.04.001
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-nater-2006-coping-styles,
author = {Nater, Urs M and Wagner, Dieter and Solomon, Laura and Jones, James F and Unger, Elizabeth R and Papanicolaou, Dimitris A and Reeves, William C and Heim, Christine},
title = {Coping styles in people with chronic fatigue syndrome identified from the general population of Wichita, KS.},
journal = {Journal of psychosomatic research},
year = {2006},
doi = {10.1016/j.jpsychores.2006.04.001},
note = {PubMed: 16731231},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/nater-2006-coping-styles},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/nater-2006-coping-styles
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