Cognitive behavioural therapy and a form of exercise therapy have shown good outcomes in a long-term study of chronic fatigue syndrome, researchers reported yesterday.
Professor Michael Sharpe of Oxford University, UK, and colleagues followed up participants in a 2011 study. In addition to cognitive behavioural therapy and graded (gradually increasing) exercise therapy, other groups of patients were given adaptive pacing therapy, or standard medical care.
Participants were contacted two and a half years after having one of the four treatments. Results indicated that the improvements in fatigue and physical functioning after cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise therapy were sustained.
Patients in these groups were also less likely to have sought additional therapy afterwards. The four treatment groups had roughly equal numbers that experienced a long-term deterioration in their general health – about 10% in each. Full results were published on Tuesday (27 October) in the Lancet Psychiatry.
"The finding that participants who had cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exercise therapy had maintained their improvement over two years after entering the trial, tells us that these treatment can improve the long-term health of people with chronic fatigue syndrome," said Professor Sharpe.
However, the ME Association said it had concerns over the reliability of the study, which, it said, "means that people with ME will recover if only they start exercising and develop a positive mental attitude".
The charity’s own research has found that over 70% of patients say exercise therapy worsens their symptoms.
"The conclusion that people with ME will respond to graded exercise therapy because they are simply inactive and deconditioned is no longer tenable," the charity says.
Sharpe, M. et al. Rehabilitative treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome: long-term follow-up from the PACE trial. The Lancet Psychiatry 27 October 2015 doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00317-X [abstract]
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