ReviewInternational journal of environmental research and public health2025
Language Matters: What Not to Say to Patients with Long COVID, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and Other Complex Chronic Disorders.
Review in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- ME/CFS and the emotional toll of persistent disbelief: from epistemic to affective injustice.Medicine, health care, and philosophy · 2026Article
- Long COVID disability burden in US adults.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Dysphagia Symptoms in Patients with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS): A Qualitative Study.Neurology international · 2026Article
- Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long COVID as Neuroimmune Disorders.ImmunoTargets and therapy · 2026Review
- Lived experiences and perspectives of persons with conditions marked by autonomic dysfunction.PloS one · 2026Article
- Review
- Biomarkers over Time: From Visual Contrast Sensitivity to Transcriptomics in Differentiating Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Dysautonomia: a common comorbidity of systemic disease.Immunologic research · 2025Review
- Complex chronic adverse events following immunization: a systemic critique and reform proposal for vaccine pharmacovigilance.Therapeutic advances in drug safety · 2025Article
- Long COVID: a long road ahead.Oxford open immunology · 2025Article
- When We Don't Have All the Answers: Long COVID and the Need for Humility in Medicine.Ochsner journal · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
People with Long COVID, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), and other complex chronic disorders consistently report having difficulty obtaining effective and compassionate medical care and being disbelieved, judged, gaslighted, and even dismissed by healthcare professionals. We believe that these adversarial interactions and language are more likely to arise when healthcare professionals are confronting complex chronic illnesses without proper training, diagnostic biomarkers, or FDA-approved therapies. These problematic conversations between practitioners and patients often involve specific words and phrases-termed the "never-words"-can leave patients in significant emotional distress and negatively impact the clinician-patient relationship and recovery. Seeking to prevent these destructive interactions, we review key literature on best practices for difficult clinical conversations and discuss the application of these practices for people with Long COVID, ME/CFS, dysautonomia, and other complex chronic disorders. We provide recommendations for alternative, preferred phrasing to the never-words, which can enhance therapeutic relationship and chronic illness patient care via compassionate, encouraging, and non-judgmental language.
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.