Strand, Elin Bolle, Mengshoel, Anne Marit, Sandvik, Leiv et al. · Scandinavian journal of pain · 2019 · DOI
This study compared 87 ME/CFS patients with 94 healthy people to understand how pain affects quality of life. Researchers found that ME/CFS patients experience significantly more pain, anxiety, and depression, and have lower quality of life than healthy controls. Within the ME/CFS group, pain was strongly linked to reduced physical functioning and overall quality of life, suggesting that managing pain could help improve how well patients function daily.
This research directly addresses a common but understudied aspect of ME/CFS by demonstrating that pain significantly impacts patients' functioning and quality of life. Understanding this relationship is crucial for clinicians to develop comprehensive pain management strategies that could meaningfully improve daily functioning. The findings support pain assessment as an essential clinical tool in ME/CFS care.
This study cannot establish causation—it cannot prove whether pain causes reduced quality of life or whether the underlying ME/CFS condition causes both pain and reduced QoL. The cross-sectional design captures only a single moment in time, so it cannot track how pain and quality of life change over time or which interventions might help. The study also does not explain the mechanisms linking joint pain frequency to psychological symptoms.
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
Strand, Elin Bolle, Mengshoel, Anne Marit, Sandvik, Leiv, Helland, Ingrid B, Abraham, Semhar, & Nes, Lise Solberg (2019). Pain is associated with reduced quality of life and functional status in patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. Scandinavian journal of pain. https://doi.org/10.1515/sjpain-2018-0095
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-strand-2019-pain-associated,
author = {Strand, Elin Bolle and Mengshoel, Anne Marit and Sandvik, Leiv and Helland, Ingrid B and Abraham, Semhar and Nes, Lise Solberg},
title = {Pain is associated with reduced quality of life and functional status in patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {Scandinavian journal of pain},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.1515/sjpain-2018-0095},
note = {PubMed: 30325738},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/strand-2019-pain-associated},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/strand-2019-pain-associated
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