Petersen, Marie Weinreich, Schröder, Andreas, Jørgensen, Torben et al. · Scandinavian journal of public health · 2020 · DOI
This study looked at how common six functional somatic syndromes—including ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and IBS—are in the general Danish population. Researchers surveyed nearly 10,000 adults and found that about 16% had at least one of these conditions, with ME/CFS being the most common at 8.6%. People with these syndromes reported poor health, difficulty with daily activities, and higher rates of depression and anxiety, especially when they had multiple conditions.
This study demonstrates that ME/CFS is highly prevalent in the general population and frequently coexists with other functional syndromes, supporting clinical observations of overlap. Understanding the population burden and comorbidity patterns of ME/CFS helps validate its significance as a public health concern and emphasizes the need for integrated approaches to diagnosis and treatment.
This cross-sectional study cannot establish causality or the direction of relationships between syndromes and psychiatric comorbidity. Questionnaire-based case identification without clinical examination or biomarker confirmation may overestimate or misclassify cases, and the study does not explain why these syndromes overlap or what mechanisms underlie their association.
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
Petersen, Marie Weinreich, Schröder, Andreas, Jørgensen, Torben, Ørnbøl, Eva, Dantoft, Thomas Meinertz, Eliasen, Marie, et al. (2020). Prevalence of functional somatic syndromes and bodily distress syndrome in the Danish population: the DanFunD study.. Scandinavian journal of public health. https://doi.org/10.1177/1403494819868592
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-petersen-2020-prevalence-functional,
author = {Petersen, Marie Weinreich and Schröder, Andreas and Jørgensen, Torben and Ørnbøl, Eva and Dantoft, Thomas Meinertz and Eliasen, Marie and Carstensen, Tina Wisbech and Falgaard Eplov, Lene and Fink, Per},
title = {Prevalence of functional somatic syndromes and bodily distress syndrome in the Danish population: the DanFunD study.},
journal = {Scandinavian journal of public health},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.1177/1403494819868592},
note = {PubMed: 31409218},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/petersen-2020-prevalence-functional},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/petersen-2020-prevalence-functional
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