Rimes, Katharine A, Chalder, Trudie · Journal of psychosomatic research · 2010 · DOI
Researchers created a new questionnaire called the Beliefs about Emotions Scale to measure how much people with ME/CFS tend to think negative emotions are unacceptable or shouldn't be expressed. They found that people with ME/CFS had much higher scores on this scale than healthy people, and that the scores improved after cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), suggesting the scale can detect real changes in these unhelpful beliefs.
This study provides a reliable measurement tool for assessing a psychological factor (unhelpful beliefs about emotions) that may be relevant to ME/CFS pathophysiology and treatment. Understanding whether and how these beliefs interact with ME/CFS symptoms could help identify patients who may benefit from therapies targeting emotion regulation, and could enable researchers to investigate whether emotional avoidance maintains symptoms.
This study does not establish whether unhelpful beliefs about emotions cause ME/CFS, worsen outcomes, or maintain symptoms—it only shows an association. The small prospective CBT sample (n=22) with no control group does not prove that reducing these beliefs improves ME/CFS outcomes; improvements could reflect placebo effect, nonspecific therapeutic benefits, or natural recovery. The cross-sectional design cannot determine whether the beliefs precede or result from living with ME/CFS.
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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Primary citation
Rimes, Katharine A & Chalder, Trudie (2010). The Beliefs about Emotions Scale: validity, reliability and sensitivity to change.. Journal of psychosomatic research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2009.09.014
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-rimes-2010-beliefs-about,
author = {Rimes, Katharine A and Chalder, Trudie},
title = {The Beliefs about Emotions Scale: validity, reliability and sensitivity to change.},
journal = {Journal of psychosomatic research},
year = {2010},
doi = {10.1016/j.jpsychores.2009.09.014},
note = {PubMed: 20159215},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/rimes-2010-beliefs-about},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/rimes-2010-beliefs-about
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