White, P D, Goldsmith, K, Johnson, A L et al. · Psychological medicine · 2013 · DOI
This study looked at how many ME/CFS patients got better after receiving different treatments over one year. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and graded exercise therapy (GET) helped about 22% of patients recover, while adaptive pacing therapy and standard medical care alone helped only about 7-8%. CBT and GET were significantly more effective than the other treatments tested.
This study provides the largest randomized evidence to date that some ME/CFS patients can achieve recovery with specific psychological and exercise-based interventions. For patients and clinicians seeking treatment options with documented efficacy data, these findings represent the primary evidence base for recovery outcomes in ME/CFS.
This study does not establish that CBT and GET work through the proposed mechanisms (deconditioning or illness beliefs), nor does it prove these treatments are effective for all ME/CFS patients or that recovery rates would be sustained beyond 52 weeks. The study's recovery criteria were trial-defined rather than derived from patient consensus, so it does not confirm that observed improvements match patients' own definitions of recovery or meaningful functional restoration.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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