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 →
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