Pheby, Derek F H, Araja, Diana, Berkis, Uldis et al. · Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2020 · DOI
This study looked at what general practitioners (GPs) know and believe about ME/CFS by reviewing 33 research papers. The researchers found that many GPs don't believe ME/CFS is a real illness or don't feel confident diagnosing it, and patients often report feeling dismissed by their doctors. This problem has been going on for decades and hasn't improved much.
This review highlights a critical healthcare barrier affecting ME/CFS patients: widespread physician disbelief and knowledge gaps lead to diagnostic delays that may worsen disease outcomes. Understanding the scope and persistence of this problem is essential for developing targeted educational interventions and policy changes to improve patient care and enable accurate prevalence estimates.
This review does not establish whether GP skepticism causes poor patient outcomes, only that it is associated with diagnostic delays and patient dissatisfaction. The study cannot determine why GP attitudes persist or whether specific training interventions would successfully change beliefs and practice patterns. Findings are primarily from UK data and may not reflect GP knowledge globally.
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
Pheby, Derek F H, Araja, Diana, Berkis, Uldis, Brenna, Elenka, Cullinan, John, de Korwin, Jean-Dominique, et al. (2020). A Literature Review of GP Knowledge and Understanding of ME/CFS: A Report from the Socioeconomic Working Group of the European Network on ME/CFS (EUROMENE).. Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania). https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina57010007
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-pheby-2020-literature-review,
author = {Pheby, Derek F H and Araja, Diana and Berkis, Uldis and Brenna, Elenka and Cullinan, John and de Korwin, Jean-Dominique and Gitto, Lara and Hughes, Dyfrig A and Hunter, Rachael M and Trepel, Dominic and Wang-Steverding, Xia},
title = {A Literature Review of GP Knowledge and Understanding of ME/CFS: A Report from the Socioeconomic Working Group of the European Network on ME/CFS (EUROMENE).},
journal = {Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania)},
year = {2020},
doi = {10.3390/medicina57010007},
note = {PubMed: 33374291},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/pheby-2020-literature-review},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/pheby-2020-literature-review
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