For years, studies have been published demonstrating the psychological or psychosomatic causation of ME/CFS (Penfold et al.). More recently, the data analyses used in these studies have been questioned calling for the withdrawal of these papers (Rehmeyer & Tuller, 2017; Wilshire et al., 2018). Further challenging the psychological or psychosomatic causation of ME/CFS are recent studies using more sophisticated laboratory research techniques demonstrating unique abnormalities associated with ME/CFS at the gene and gene-expression levels (de Vega, Herrera, Vernon, & McGowan, 2017; Tomas & Newton, 2018). Despite these more recent research findings, the long-tenured, false belief that ME/CFS is an illness without an identifiable physiological abnormality persists, leading to the stigmatization of this illness as a psychological illness and causing delay in a correct diagnosis (Institute of Medicine, 2015). The school nurse, knowledgeable about the stigma, the clinical research, and the life-saving advantages of instituting early and appropriate care for young people with ME/CFS, may need to educate others who are unfamiliar with the disease or who are reluctant to accept ME/CFS as a valid, physiological illness within his or her workplace.
