ArticleBrain, behavior, & immunity - health2020
Patients with ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and chronic pain report similar level of sickness behavior as individuals injected with bacterial endotoxin at peak inflammation.
Article in Brain, behavior, & immunity - health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Recent research in myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: an evidence map.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2025Pooled it
- Alterations in gut microbiota and associated metabolites in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Altered response to Toll-like receptor 4 activation in fibromyalgia: A low-dose, human experimental endotoxemia pilot study.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Article
- Assessing sickness behavior in the French: Validation of the French translation of the sickness questionnaire (SicknessQ) in a non-clinical French population.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Article
- Links between brain neuroimaging and blood inflammatory markers in urological chronic pelvic pain syndrome.Physiology & behavior · 2023Article
- Abnormal immune system response in the brain of women with Fibromyalgia after experimental endotoxin challenge.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2023Article
- Short-Term Effects of Whole-Body Photobiomodulation on Pain, Quality of Life and Psychological Factors in a Population Suffering from Fibromyalgia: A Triple-Blinded Randomised Clinical Trial.Pain and therapy · 2023Article
- Could the kynurenine pathway be the key missing piece of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) complex puzzle?Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2022Review
- Short- and long-term effects of whole-body photobiomodulation on pain, functionality, tissue quality, central sensitisation and psychological factors in a population suffering from fibromyalgia: protocol for a triple-blinded randomised clinical trial.Therapeutic advances in chronic disease · 2022Article
- Objective and Subjective Sleep in Rheumatoid Arthritis and Severe Seasonal Allergy: Preliminary Assessments of the Role of Sickness, Central and Peripheral Inflammation.Nature and science of sleep · 2021Article
- What Does CATS Have to Do With Cancer? The Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress (CATS) Forms the SURGE Model of Chronic Post-surgical Pain in Women With Breast Cancer.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Review
- MCP-1 is increased in patients with CFS and FM, whilst several other immune markers are significantly lower than healthy controls.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2020Article
- Properties of the Sickness Questionnaire in an Australian sample with chronic medically unexplained symptoms.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Chronic sickness behavior is implicated in ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and chronic pain but the level of subjective sickness behavior in these conditions has not been investigated or compared to other clinical and non-clinical samples, or to the level in experimental inflammation. Furthermore, the relationship between sickness behavior and self-rated health and functioning is not known in patients with ME/CFS and chronic pain. The aim of the present study was to investigate how sickness behavior in patients with chronic conditions differs from that in individuals with experimental acute sickness, primary care patients, the general population and healthy subjects. In addition, we wanted to explore how sickness behavior is related to self-rated health and health-related functioning. Methods: Sickness behavior was quantified using the sickness questionnaire (SicknessQ). Self-ratings were collected at one time-point in 6 different samples. Levels of sickness behavior in patients with ME/CFS ( Results: LPS-injected individuals (M = 16.3), patients with ME/CFS (M = 16.1), chronic pain (M = 16.1) and primary care patients (M = 10.7) reported significantly higher SicknessQ scores than individuals from the general population (M = 5.4) and healthy subjects (M = 3.6) all Conclusions: Patients with ME/CFS and chronic pain report similar high levels of sickness behavior; higher than primary care patients, and comparable to levels in experimental inflammation. Further study of sickness behavior in ME/CFS and chronic pain populations is warranted as immune-to-brain interactions and sickness behavior may be of importance for functioning as well as in core pathophysiological processes in subsets of patients.
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