van Geelen, Stefan M, Fuchs, Coralie E, van Geel, Rolf et al. · Psychopathology · 2015 · DOI
This study looked at how adolescents with ME/CFS experience themselves and their identity, beyond just listing their symptoms. Researchers compared 42 teenagers with ME/CFS to teenagers with arthritis and healthy peers, and found that those with ME/CFS reported feeling more powerless, isolated, and unable to achieve their goals, while also having lower self-esteem and mental health scores. The findings suggest that ME/CFS deeply affects not just the body, but how young people see and value themselves.
Most ME/CFS research focuses on physical symptoms, but this study reveals that the condition profoundly affects adolescents' sense of self and psychological well-being in ways distinct from other chronic illnesses. Understanding the psychological and identity-related burden of ME/CFS is essential for developing holistic treatment approaches that address not just symptom management but also self-empowerment and mental health support.
This cross-sectional study cannot determine whether altered self-experience causes ME/CFS symptoms or results from living with the disease. The findings are also limited to adolescents and may not generalize to adults with ME/CFS. The study does not establish mechanisms linking self-experience changes to disease outcomes or prognosis.
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
van Geelen, Stefan M, Fuchs, Coralie E, van Geel, Rolf, Luyten, Patrick, & van de Putte, Elise M (2015). The Self beyond Somatic Symptoms: A Narrative Approach to Self-Experience in Adolescent Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. Psychopathology. https://doi.org/10.1159/000431258
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-van-geelen-2015-self-beyond,
author = {van Geelen, Stefan M and Fuchs, Coralie E and van Geel, Rolf and Luyten, Patrick and van de Putte, Elise M},
title = {The Self beyond Somatic Symptoms: A Narrative Approach to Self-Experience in Adolescent Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {Psychopathology},
year = {2015},
doi = {10.1159/000431258},
note = {PubMed: 26361007},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/van-geelen-2015-self-beyond},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/van-geelen-2015-self-beyond
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