Van Houdenhove, Boudewijn, Bruyninckx, Karolien, Luyten, Patrick · Journal of psychosomatic research · 2006 · DOI
This study looked at whether people with ME/CFS who tend to be very action-oriented or driven can change this trait through treatment. Researchers asked 62 patients to recall how active and driven they were before getting sick, when they started treatment, and after completing a multidisciplinary program (which included cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise). The treatment did help increase action-proneness, though patients didn't return to their pre-illness levels.
Understanding whether personality traits like action-proneness can be modified through treatment is important for developing targeted interventions for ME/CFS. This work suggests that multidisciplinary approaches may help restore some pre-illness patterns of functioning, potentially improving patients' quality of life and engagement in meaningful activities.
This study does not prove that high action-proneness causes ME/CFS or that reducing it is harmful. It also does not demonstrate that the observed changes in action-proneness were the mechanism responsible for any clinical improvements, nor does it establish long-term durability of these changes beyond the treatment period.
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 Houdenhove, Boudewijn, Bruyninckx, Karolien, & Luyten, Patrick (2006). In search of a new balance. Can high "action-proneness" in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome be changed by a multidisciplinary group treatment?. Journal of psychosomatic research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2005.12.006
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-van-houdenhove-2006-search-new,
author = {Van Houdenhove, Boudewijn and Bruyninckx, Karolien and Luyten, Patrick},
title = {In search of a new balance. Can high "action-proneness" in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome be changed by a multidisciplinary group treatment?},
journal = {Journal of psychosomatic research},
year = {2006},
doi = {10.1016/j.jpsychores.2005.12.006},
note = {PubMed: 16731237},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/van-houdenhove-2006-search-new},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/van-houdenhove-2006-search-new
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