Nawab, S S, Miller, C S, Dale, J K et al. · Psychiatry research · 2000 · DOI
This study asked 225 people—including those with ME/CFS, SAD, and other conditions, plus healthy volunteers—to report how sensitive they are to everyday chemical exposures like perfumes, cleaning products, and other odors. People with ME/CFS reported significantly higher chemical sensitivity than healthy controls, and women reported more sensitivity than men. The researchers suggest that chemical sensitivity may be connected to how the body's stress-response system (the HPA axis) functions.
Chemical sensitivity is a common and distressing symptom reported by many ME/CFS patients. This study provides evidence that heightened chemical sensitivity in ME/CFS is not idiopathic but may reflect underlying biological dysfunction—specifically HPA-axis dysregulation—shared with other medical and psychiatric conditions, which could guide future investigation into shared pathophysiologic mechanisms.
This study does not prove that chemical exposures cause ME/CFS or that HPA-axis dysfunction directly causes chemical sensitivity; it only documents an association. The cross-sectional design cannot establish temporal relationships or causality. Additionally, self-reported sensitivity does not measure objective chemical exposure levels or immune/neurological responses to specific compounds.
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
Nawab, S S, Miller, C S, Dale, J K, Greenberg, B D, Friedman, T C, Chrousos, G P, et al. (2000). Self-reported sensitivity to chemical exposures in five clinical populations and healthy controls.. Psychiatry research. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-1781(00)00148-7
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-nawab-2000-self-reported,
author = {Nawab, S S and Miller, C S and Dale, J K and Greenberg, B D and Friedman, T C and Chrousos, G P and Straus, S E and Rosenthal, N E},
title = {Self-reported sensitivity to chemical exposures in five clinical populations and healthy controls.},
journal = {Psychiatry research},
year = {2000},
doi = {10.1016/s0165-1781(00)00148-7},
note = {PubMed: 10904124},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/nawab-2000-self-reported},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/nawab-2000-self-reported
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