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  • Title: Chronic fatigue syndrome and the somatic expression of emotional distress: Applying the concept of illusory mental health to address the controversy.
    Author: Bram AD, Gottschalk KA, Leeds WM.
    Journal: J Clin Psychol; 2019 Jan; 75(1):116-131. PubMed ID: 30152867.
    Abstract:
    OBJECTIVE: The process of somatization in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) was investigated using the concept of illusory mental health (IMH). IMH involves self-reporting low emotional distress alongside performance-based assessment of distress. METHOD: We studied IHM and physical symptoms in 175 women across four groups: (a) CFS plus depression; (b) CFS with no depression (CFS-ND); (c) depressive disorder without CFS; and (d) healthy controls (HC). IMH was assessed using a self-report measure plus the performance-based Early Memory Index (EMI). RESULTS: CFS-NDs were no more likely to have IMH compared with HCs. Among the CFS-NDs, IMH was associated with more physical symptoms. For CFS-NDs, EMI added meaningfully beyond self-reported mental health in predicting physical symptoms. CONCLUSION: Findings refute reducing CFS to somatization, but there is a subgroup of CFS whose lacking access to emotional distress is associated with heightened physical symptomatology.
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