Sanal-Hayes, Nilihan E M, Hayes, Lawrence D, Mclaughlin, Marie et al. · The American journal of medicine · 2025 · DOI
This study compared how often people with long COVID, ME/CFS, and healthy people experience trauma-related mental health conditions. Researchers found that people with long COVID had the highest rates of these conditions (38% combined), followed by people with ME/CFS (20%), while healthy people had none. Both long COVID and ME/CFS groups showed more trauma-related symptoms than controls across multiple measures.
This is the first direct comparison of trauma-related mental health conditions between long COVID and ME/CFS, highlighting that both conditions may be associated with significant psychological distress beyond physical symptoms. Understanding these associations could improve holistic care approaches for both populations.
This study cannot establish whether trauma-related symptoms are caused by the illness experience itself, pre-existing vulnerabilities, or other factors. The small sample sizes and lack of clinical confirmation of diagnoses limit generalizability. Correlation between these conditions and trauma symptoms does not prove causation.
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
Sanal-Hayes, Nilihan E M, Hayes, Lawrence D, Mclaughlin, Marie, Berry, Ethan C J, & Sculthorpe, Nicholas F (2025). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in People with Long COVID, ME/CFS, and Controls.. The American journal of medicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2023.12.006
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-sanal-hayes-2025-post-traumatic,
author = {Sanal-Hayes, Nilihan E M and Hayes, Lawrence D and Mclaughlin, Marie and Berry, Ethan C J and Sculthorpe, Nicholas F},
title = {Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in People with Long COVID, ME/CFS, and Controls.},
journal = {The American journal of medicine},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1016/j.amjmed.2023.12.006},
note = {PubMed: 38104642},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/sanal-hayes-2025-post-traumatic},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/sanal-hayes-2025-post-traumatic
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