Unraveling the role of perfectionism in chronic fatigue syndrome: is there a distinction between adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism?

In the current study, we investigated whether the distinction between adaptive (i.e. high personal standards) and maladaptive (i.e. concern over mistakes and doubt about actions) perfectionism that has been found in the literature, is also valid in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). We hypothesized that maladaptive, but not adaptive, perfectionism would be significantly and positively related to severity of fatigue and depression in CFS. We examined this hypothesis in a sample of 192 CFS patients using structural equation modelling (SEM). Although the two perfectionism dimensions were related to each other, results supported a model in which only maladaptive perfectionism was positively related to severity of fatigue and depression. Further, we found that depression fully mediated the effect of maladaptive perfectionism on fatigue. The results suggest that adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism are two distinct, albeit related, dimensions in CFS. Findings of this study have important implications for theory and treatment of CFS, particularly for cognitive-behavioral treatment.