ReviewClinical psychology in Europe2023
Aetiological Understanding of Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Classificatory Analogues: A Systematic Umbrella Review.
Review in Clinical psychology in Europe, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Efficacy and Acceptance of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Adults with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Meta-analysis.International journal of behavioral medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Towards a Less Ideal Theory About Well-being-The Case of Post COVID Condition.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2026Article
- Measurement properties of the Patient Health Questionnaire 15 (PHQ-15) and Somatic Symptom Disorder B-criteria scale (SSD-12), including revised 1-week versions.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Psychosomatic Features of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: The Role of Alexithymia in Patient Health-Related Quality of Life-A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Clinical practice guidelines in fibromyalgia. Physiotherapists' adherence in Denmark: a cross-sectional web-based survey study.Rheumatology international · 2026Article
- Association of the inflammatory marker suPAR with chronic pruritus of unknown origin - data from the SOMA.PRU study.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Psychological self-efficacy and coping styles as mediators between perceived stress and IBS symptom severity: a cross-sectional study.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2025Article
- Functional and internalizing disorders co-aggregate with cardiometabolic and immune-related diseases within families: a population-based cohort study.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Letter to the Editor: On the Critical Nature of Psychosomatics in Clinical Practice.Clinical psychology in Europe · 2025Article
- Familial coaggregation and shared familiality of functional and internalizing disorders in the Lifelines cohort.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Bodily Distress Syndrome Is Associated with Impaired Physical Fitness-A Population Based Cross-Sectional Study (DanFunD).Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Psychological factors associated with Long COVID: a systematic review and meta-analysis.EClinicalMedicine · 2024Article
- Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Fibromyalgia: Exploring the Necessity of Neuronavigation for Targeting New Brain Regions.Journal of personalized medicine · 2024Review
- Article
- Aetiological Understanding of Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Classificatory Analogues: A Systematic Umbrella Review.Clinical psychology in Europe · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: This umbrella review systematically assesses the variety and relative dominance of current aetiological views within the scientific literature for the three most investigated symptom-defined functional somatic syndromes (FSS) and their classificatory analogues within psychiatry and psychology. Method: An umbrella review of narrative and systematic reviews with and without meta-analyses based on a search of electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, PsychINFO) was conducted. Eligible reviews were published in English, focused on research of any kind of aetiological factors in adults diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME), and somatic symptom disorder (SSD)/somatoform disorder (SFD). Results: We included 452 reviews (132 systematic reviews including meta-analyses, 133 systematic reviews, 197 narrative reviews), of which 132 (29%) focused on two or more of the investigated health conditions simultaneously. Across diagnoses, biological factors were addressed in 90% (k = 405), psychological in 33% (k = 150), social in 12% (k = 54), and healthcare factors in 5% (k = 23) of the reviews. The methodological quality of the included systematic reviews (k = 255) was low (low/critically low: 41% [k = 104]; moderate: 49% [k = 126]; high quality: 10% [k = 25]). The high-quality systematic reviews suggest that deficient conditioned pain modulation, genetic factors, changes in the immune, endocrinological, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, and nervous system, and psychosocial factors such as sexual abuse and pain catastrophizing increase the risk for FSS. Conclusion: Only very few systematic reviews have used comprehensive, biopsychosocial disease models to guide the selection of aetiological factors in FSS research. Future research should strive for higher scientific standards and broaden its perspective on these health conditions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.