ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the evidence with the aim of assessing whether abnormal illness behavior correlates with psychopathology or is an independent feature of functional somatic syndromes. Abnormal illness behavior is the central theme of a large body of research work in functional somatic syndromes. The working hypothesis suggests that patients with functional symptoms have a selection bias for illness-related stimuli, which leads to an overlap between three schemas: symptoms, illness, and self. The psychosocial functioning of adolescent girls with chronic fatigue syndrome was studied in a controlled investigation by researchers from the North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, New York. The researchers assessed the presence of 14 events with potential to lead to substantial life changes and the intensity of feverishness, pain, fatigue, sadness, and irritability experienced in the 12 months preceding the onset of chronic fatigue syndrome. The severity of fatigue was similar in all three patient groups and significantly higher than in the control group.
