Raine, Rosalind, Haines, Andy, Sensky, Tom et al. · BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2002 · DOI
Researchers reviewed 61 studies testing mental health treatments for ME/CFS, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic back pain. They found that cognitive behavioural therapy and behaviour therapy helped with ME/CFS and back pain, while antidepressants helped with irritable bowel syndrome. Treatments worked better when delivered in hospital settings than in GP surgeries, possibly because hospital patients had more severe illness or received closer supervision.
This review directly addresses treatment effectiveness for ME/CFS patients and highlights a critical evidence gap: most high-quality research comes from specialist centres rather than primary care where most ME/CFS patients are actually managed. Understanding these differences is essential for translating research findings into real-world clinical practice.
This review does not prove that mental health interventions are the primary or sole treatment for ME/CFS, nor does it establish the mechanism of benefit. The authors explicitly note that conclusions must be considered in light of methodological weaknesses in included studies, and they do not claim that findings definitively apply to primary care settings despite the extrapolation question posed.
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
Raine, Rosalind, Haines, Andy, Sensky, Tom, Hutchings, Andrew, Larkin, Kirsten, & Black, Nick (2002). Systematic review of mental health interventions for patients with common somatic symptoms: can research evidence from secondary care be extrapolated to primary care?. BMJ (Clinical research ed.). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7372.1082
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-raine-2002-systematic-review,
author = {Raine, Rosalind and Haines, Andy and Sensky, Tom and Hutchings, Andrew and Larkin, Kirsten and Black, Nick},
title = {Systematic review of mental health interventions for patients with common somatic symptoms: can research evidence from secondary care be extrapolated to primary care?},
journal = {BMJ (Clinical research ed.)},
year = {2002},
doi = {10.1136/bmj.325.7372.1082},
note = {PubMed: 12424170},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/raine-2002-systematic-review},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-30. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/raine-2002-systematic-review
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