THE biggest-ever study of treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome has found more people recover if helped to try to do more than they think they can – rather than adapting to a life of limited activity.
The findings of the study, published in the Lancet, attracted immediate criticism from patient groups, some of whom believe there is a conspiracy by the psychiatric establishment to brand chronic fatigue as being ”all in the mind”. they insist it is a physical disease, probably with a viral cause.
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Doctors involved in the new trial say they are looking only at treating the symptoms, not the cause. in a quarter of cases, sufferers are unable to leave the house. The symptoms include exhaustion, poor concentration, memory problems, disturbed sleep, and joint and muscle pains.
The trial, funded by the UK Medical Research Council together with the Department of Health, followed 641 patients for a year.
It found that patients showed more improvement – and a small minority recovered completely – after cognitive behaviour therapy, one of the so-called psychological ”talking therapies”, or graded exercise therapy, where the patient is encouraged gradually to become more active.
Although the numbers who recovered were small, Trudie Chalder, professor of cognitive behavioural psychotherapy at King’s College, London, said that ”twice as many people on graded exercise therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy got back to normal” compared with those in the other two treatment groups.