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Original Article

Can General Practitioners Manage Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

A Controlled Trial

&
Pages 55-64 | Published online: 04 Dec 2011
 

Abstract

Background: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic En-cephalomyeltis (CFS/ME) is now recognised as a condition that results in substantial disability with a prevalence of around 0.6%.

Aim: The study aimed to test the hypotheses that general practitioners could (a) diagnose and (b) treat patients with the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).

Method: All practices in two health authorities were contacted with a 35% uptake. Fifty percent of practices then entered a patient into the study. Practices were randomised to either intervention or control groups, and were encouraged to recruit patients. It was intended that the intervention practices would introduce a form of brief cognitive behavioural therapy. Control practices were invited to manage their patients as usual, which often included referral to secondary care.

Results: The study suffered from both poor recruitment and high drop out. However, we were able to show that this intervention had no effect on the illness of the patients enrolled, and that patients with CFS remained highly disabled over the 12 month study period, whatever their treatment.

Conclusion: The study suggests that general practitioners in this study were unable to effectively treat the condition. This accords with the Royal Colleges' report (1996), that the only evidence for effective treatment thus far has come from specialist units. The study suggests that general practitioners are unable to provide a management programme of this nature, and possibly effective treatment programmes for CFS in primary care.

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