Whitehead, William E, Palsson, Olafur, Jones, Kenneth R · Gastroenterology · 2002 · DOI
This review examined how irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) often occurs together with other conditions like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, anxiety, and depression. Researchers found that patients with IBS frequently have multiple other health problems at the same time, suggesting these conditions may share common underlying mechanisms rather than being completely separate disorders.
This study is crucial for ME/CFS patients because it demonstrates that chronic fatigue syndrome frequently co-occurs with IBS and other conditions, suggesting common underlying biological or psychological mechanisms. Understanding these comorbidity patterns helps validate the interconnected nature of complex multisystem disorders and may inform more holistic treatment approaches that address shared pathophysiology rather than treating each condition in isolation.
This review does not establish causation or prove that the comorbidities share a single biological cause—only that they co-occur more frequently than expected by chance. It also does not definitively prove whether psychological factors are primary drivers versus secondary consequences of having multiple chronic illnesses, and individual patient heterogeneity may mask important biological subgroups.
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
Whitehead, William E, Palsson, Olafur, & Jones, Kenneth R (2002). Systematic review of the comorbidity of irritable bowel syndrome with other disorders: what are the causes and implications?. Gastroenterology. https://doi.org/10.1053/gast.2002.32392
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-whitehead-2002-systematic-review,
author = {Whitehead, William E and Palsson, Olafur and Jones, Kenneth R},
title = {Systematic review of the comorbidity of irritable bowel syndrome with other disorders: what are the causes and implications?},
journal = {Gastroenterology},
year = {2002},
doi = {10.1053/gast.2002.32392},
note = {PubMed: 11910364},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/whitehead-2002-systematic-review},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/whitehead-2002-systematic-review
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