Lappalainen, Päivi, Keinonen, Katariina, Lappalainen, Raimo et al. · Journal of psychosomatic research · 2024 · DOI
This study tested whether an online therapy program based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) could help adults with persistent physical symptoms like chronic fatigue and environmental sensitivities. Adults receiving the 14-week online program combined with their usual medical care showed greater improvements in symptom severity, depression, and anxiety compared to those receiving usual care alone, with benefits lasting at least 3 months.
This study provides evidence for a scalable, low-cost online intervention for ME/CFS and related conditions that showed meaningful symptom reductions. For ME/CFS patients seeking accessible treatment options beyond standard care, these results suggest internet-based ACT may offer real clinical benefits, particularly for mood and somatic symptom burden.
This study does not prove that ACT addresses the underlying biological mechanisms of ME/CFS or that it is effective as a monotherapy without usual medical care. The study also does not establish whether improvements are due to ACT's specific mechanisms or to non-specific factors like attention and expectation, nor does it demonstrate long-term durability beyond 3 months.
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 →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Lappalainen, Päivi, Keinonen, Katariina, Lappalainen, Raimo, Selinheimo, Sanna, Vuokko, Aki, Sainio, Markku, et al. (2024). Online acceptance and commitment therapy (iACT) for adults with persistent physical symptoms - 3-month follow-up study of a randomized controlled trial.. Journal of psychosomatic research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2024.111830
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-lappalainen-2024-online-acceptance,
author = {Lappalainen, Päivi and Keinonen, Katariina and Lappalainen, Raimo and Selinheimo, Sanna and Vuokko, Aki and Sainio, Markku and Liesto, Sanna and Tolvanen, Asko and Paunio, Tiina},
title = {Online acceptance and commitment therapy (iACT) for adults with persistent physical symptoms - 3-month follow-up study of a randomized controlled trial.},
journal = {Journal of psychosomatic research},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.1016/j.jpsychores.2024.111830},
note = {PubMed: 38878337},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lappalainen-2024-online-acceptance},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lappalainen-2024-online-acceptance
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