Lines, Sharon · Child and adolescent mental health · 2004 · DOI
This study followed 20 children with chronic fatigue at a major hospital in London using a talk-based therapy approach adapted for children. Most children (87%) improved over time, with more attending school and having fewer symptoms. The children who did best were those whose fatigue had lasted less than a year and who gradually increased their activities at home.
This early study highlights that ME/CFS in children can improve substantially with appropriate intervention, providing hope for affected families. Understanding that shorter illness duration and gradual activity reintroduction predict better outcomes may inform treatment strategies and prognostic counselling for paediatric ME/CFS patients.
This study does not prove that cognitive-behavioural therapy alone cures ME/CFS or that psychological factors are the primary cause of the illness. The lack of a control group means we cannot determine how much improvement would have occurred naturally or attribute outcomes definitively to the intervention rather than other factors.
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
Lines, Sharon (2004). Chronic Fatigue: A Survey, Outcome Study and Proposals.. Child and adolescent mental health. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-3588.2004.00101.x
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-lines-2004-chronic-fatigue,
author = {Lines, Sharon},
title = {Chronic Fatigue: A Survey, Outcome Study and Proposals.},
journal = {Child and adolescent mental health},
year = {2004},
doi = {10.1111/j.1475-3588.2004.00101.x},
note = {PubMed: 32797518},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lines-2004-chronic-fatigue},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/lines-2004-chronic-fatigue
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