Serrat, Mayte, Navarrete, Jaime, Ferrés, Sònia et al. · Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2024 · DOI
Researchers tested an online 12-week program called FATIGUEWALK that combines education about pain and fatigue, gentle exercise, cognitive techniques, and mindfulness training for people with ME/CFS. Compared to people who only received standard care, those who completed FATIGUEWALK showed meaningful improvements in fatigue, pain, mood, and daily functioning. About 1 in 5 participants improved with the program who wouldn't have with standard care alone.
This is the first rigorous trial of a multicomponent online intervention specifically designed for ME/CFS delivered at scale, demonstrating that combined psychological and exercise-based approaches can produce clinically meaningful improvements. The study's strong methodology and positive results provide evidence-based treatment options for patients who may have limited access to specialized in-person care, while its NNT of 6 suggests practical clinical utility.
This study does not establish whether improvements are durable beyond 12 weeks, as no long-term follow-up data were collected. It cannot determine which specific components (education, exercise, cognitive, mindfulness) drive improvement, nor does it prove FATIGUEWALK is superior to other established interventions, since no active comparator was used. The study also does not address whether results generalize to homebound patients or those with severe ME/CFS.
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
Serrat, Mayte, Navarrete, Jaime, Ferrés, Sònia, Auer, William, Sanmartín-Sentañes, Ramon, Nieto, Rubén, et al. (2024). Effectiveness of an online multicomponent program (FATIGUEWALK) for chronic fatigue syndrome: A randomized controlled trial.. Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0001346
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-serrat-2024-effectiveness-online,
author = {Serrat, Mayte and Navarrete, Jaime and Ferrés, Sònia and Auer, William and Sanmartín-Sentañes, Ramon and Nieto, Rubén and Neblett, Randy and Borràs, Xavier and Luciano, Juan V and Feliu-Soler, Albert},
title = {Effectiveness of an online multicomponent program (FATIGUEWALK) for chronic fatigue syndrome: A randomized controlled trial.},
journal = {Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association},
year = {2024},
doi = {10.1037/hea0001346},
note = {PubMed: 38127508},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/serrat-2024-effectiveness-online},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-29. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/serrat-2024-effectiveness-online
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