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Dr Esther Crawley provides expert comment on latest research into Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

31 January 2013

Dr Esther Crawley, Reader in Child Health at the University’s School of Social and Community Medicine has commented to the media on new findings, published in Psychological Medicine today [31 Jan 13], about a multi-centre PACE trial, which found that rehabilitative cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) were more effective treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) than specialist medical care (SMC) alone.

Dr Esther Crawley, Reader in Child Health at the University’s School of Social and Community Medicine has commented to the media on new findings, published in Psychological Medicinetoday [31 Jan 13], about a multi-centre PACE trial, which found that rehabilitative cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) were more effective treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) than specialist medical care (SMC) alone.

Commenting on these new findings, Dr Crawley said: “Every patient with CFS/ME wants to know how likely they are to recover. This large, well-conducted trial shows convincingly that adult patients who receive CBT or GET have a much greater chance of recovery than those who see a doctor alone, or who are treated with adaptive pacing. It is sobering to see that, even with the best possible treatment, only 22 patients of patients recovered.

"Although the authors worked hard to define recovery based on the data available from the PACE trial, we need further research to understand what recovery means for patients with CFS/ME, and how to measure it in future studies."

 

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